THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

GIFT  OF 


H.  L.  I'ASSEB 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  THE 
GAS  INDUSTRY 


1 

if|H 

I^B 

■ 

COURTESY,    YERKES   OBSERVATORY. 

A  Planet  in  the  Making.     Gaseous  Nebula  in  Orion 


The  Romance 

OF    THE 

Gas  Industry 


BY 
OSCAR  E.  NORMAN,  A.  B. 

Member  American  Library  Association; 

American  Gas  Association  and  British  Commercial  Gas  Association, 

Librarian  and  Superintendent,  Training  and  Education; 

The  Peoples  Gas  Light  &  Coke  Company 


ILLUSTRATED 


CHICAGO 
A.  G.  McGLURG  &  GOMPANY 

1922 


Copyright 
A.  C.  AIcCLURG  &  CO. 

1922 

Published  November,  1922 


Copyrighted  in  Great  Britain 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 

M.    A.    DONOHUE    &    CO.,   PRINTERS    AND    BINDERS,   CHICAGO 


EBgineering 
Library 


TP 


DEDICATED 

to  the  "Rising  Generation" 

and  to  that  diligent,  loyal  Band  of  Workers 

found  in  every  Community  —  Public  Utility  Employes 


733759 


FOREWORD 

*' There  is  Romance  in  every  Business^^ 

THE  author  had  no  intention  of  interposing 
any  introductory  remarks  to  this  story,  but 
a  reading  of  W.  Cameron  Forbes'  Romance  of 
Business  prompted  him  to  prepare  a  list  of  books 
and  booklets  which  reveal  the  Romance  of  Com- 
mon Things. 

To  his  surprise  their  number  grew  from  an 
original  seventy-five  to  nearly  four  hundred, 
without  counting  those  hastily  prepared  publi- 
cations which  expect  one  page  of  historical  in- 
troduction and  a  few  pages  of  extravagant 
statements  to  carry  a  Message  to  Garcia  and 
to  start  the  dollars  rolling  into  the  treasury. 
After  making  this  discovery  he  felt  that  readers 
should  in  some  way  be  made  to  realize  the  "vital 
part  that  business  plays  in  our  lives;"  and,  since 
Mr.  Forbes  had  already  so  admirably  stated  it 
in  his  book,  that  the  best  way  to  bring  it  to  their 


Foreword 


attention  was  by  quoting  from  Chapter  I  on 
^^What  it  really  is,"  that  is,  What  the  Romance 
of  Business  really  is.    Says  Mr.  Forbes: 

Some  people  think  there  is  no  romance  in  business. 

Why,  the  romance  that  surrounds  the  business  of  supply- 
ing even  the  simplest  needs  of  an  average  American  citizen 
would  make  the  great  romances  of  history  pale  into  insignifi- 
cance in  comparison. 

It  is  not  that  the  romance  is  not  there  —  it  is  only  that  we 
do  not  see  it.  The  things  we  use  most  often,  such  as  sugar, 
or  coffee,  or  cereals,  the  materials  that  make  up  our  articles 
of  wear  and  use,  our  clothes,  shoes,  tooth  brushes,  soap,  ties, 
knives,  and  even  the  coins  in  our  pockets  are  the  combined 
product  of  the  brains  of  thousands  of  wise  men,  living  and 
dead.  They  are  the  product  also  of  the  hands  of  further 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  whose  labor  is  not  all  of  today, 
but  in  part  the  stored-up  labor  of  men  lying  dead. 

Whether  this  brain  and  hand  labor  is  represented  by  the 
lighthouse  that  saves  a  ship  from  wreck,  the  dock  to  which 
it  swings  in,  the  tunnel  through  the  mountains  that  the 
train  comes  through,  the  warehouse,  the  lorry,  the  elevated, 
or  the  kitchen  stove  —  it  has  performed  its  part  in  the  mak- 
ing of  something  that  you  use  today  with  a  bored  compla- 
cency Vv^hich  ignores  the  great  forces  working  endlessly  and 
tirelessly  for  your  comfort  and  happiness. 

The  gas  industry  has  always  neglected  to  make 
public  the  romance  of  its  achievements,  while 
other  industries  have  continually  seized  upon  the 
historical  and  dramatic  to  herald  their  progress. 
The  following  pages  have  been  written  for  the 
purpose  of  ending  this  neglect,   and  with  the 


Foreword 


hope  that  they  will  to  some  extent  reveal  the 
romance  which  exists  in  "  gas  service." 

An  attempt  has  also  been  made  to  relate  en- 
tertainingly how  obstacles  in  the  way  of  produc- 
tion, distribution,  and  uses  of  gas  have  been 
overcome;  how  gas  has  become  the  ideal  fuel 
in  the  household  and  in  the  factory;  and  how 
its  radiance  rivals  the  sun. 

Judged  from  these  angles  the  word  GAS 
might  well  be  said  to  be  made  up  of  the  first 
letters  of  the  names  of  three  gods  worshiped 
by  the  ancient  East  Indians,  namely: 

G — from  Ganesa,  the  god  of  wisdom  and  remover 

of  obstacles. 
A — from  Agni,  the  god  of  fire, 

and 
S — from  Surya,  the  sun  god. 

O.  E.  N. 

July  1,  1922 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     The  Birth  of  Mother  Earth 1 

II     How  the  Quest  for  Gold  Revealed  the  Soul  of 

Coal 4 

III  The  "Wild  Spirit"  Re-discovered  and  Tamed     15 

IV  How  a  Madman  Started  the  First  Gas  Company     29 
V     "A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Your  Light"     34 

VI     How  Sunshine  is  Released  for  the  Use  of  Man     59 
VII     The  "  Gas  Fairy  "  in  the  Household     ...     96 
VIII     Gas   Service — The   Growing  Giant   in   Indus- 
tries        122 

IX    A  City  Beautiful  Within  Twenty  Years     .     .134 

X     "  Semper  Fidelis  " 155 

Appendix  A  —  Chronology  of  the  Early  Devel- 
opments of  the  Gas  Industry 159 

Appendix  B  —  Dates  Gas  Lighting  was  Intro- 
duced in  the  Principal  Cities  of  the  World  .     .173 
Appendix  C  —  Journals  and  Associations  of  or 

Related  to  the  Gas  Industry 175 

Appendix  D  —  Reference  Books  on  the  Gas  In- 
dustry and  Allied  Subjects 180 

Appendix  E  —  Public  Utility  Information  .     .183 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

A  Planet  in  the  Making.     Gaseous  Nebula  in 

Orion  Frontispiece 

An  Alchemist's  Laboratory 8 

Jean  Baptiste  van  Helmont  who  gave  Gas  its  name  .  12 
William  Murdock,  Inventor  of  first  Steam  Locomotive 

and  the  first  Gas  Engineer 12 

Philippe  Lebon,  French  Discoverer  of  Gas  ....  12 
Frederick  Albert  Winsor,  whose  vision  of  Gas  Service 

would  assure  a  "  City  Beautiful." 12 

First  Oil  Well  drilled  (69  feet  deep  —  August,  1850)  .  18 
First  Oil  Well  in  England.     Bored  3,078  feet  deep  at 

Hardstoft,    Derbyshire,    60    Years    after    Drake's 

well,  by  American  Geologists,  Engineers,  Drillers, 

and    Machinery        18 

First  House  lighted  with  Gas  —  William  Murdock's 

Home 22 

First   House  in  the   United   States   lighted  with   Gas. 

Peale's  Museum,  Baltimore        22 

Early  experimental  Gas  Plant 25 

*A  Peep  at  the  Gas  Lights  in  Pall  Mall  "  by  Thomas 

Rowlandson,  English  Artist  and  Caricaturist     .     .     36 

Linkboy  of  early  London 37 

A  London  Street  Crier 37 

Sketch  of  London  1815,  showing  Location  of  Gas  Mains  40 
Gas  Plant  built  1812  by  Samuel  Clegg  to  light  Premises 

of  Mr.  Ackermann,  London  Publisher  ....  44 
First  House  in  New  York  City  lighted  with  Gas.   No.  7 

Cherry  Street,  belonging  to  Samuel  Leggett  .  .  44 
Rembrandt  Peale,  who  organized  the  first  Gas  Company     45 


Illustrations 


PAGE 

Robert   Wilhelm   von    Bunsen,    Inventor   of   the    Gas 

Burner       45 

Carl  Auer  von  Welsbach,  Inventor  of  the  Gas  Mantle  45 
Professor  Thaddeus  S.  C.  Lowe,  Inventor  of  Carbureted 

Water  Gas  Apparatus 45 

Primeval  Forest  whose  luxuriant  Vegetation  absorbed 

Radiant  Energy  and  was  converted  into  Coal  .  .  62 
Undercutting  a  Breast  of  Coal  with  a  compressed  air 

Puncher 62 

Experimental  Gas  Container  of  1780 65 

What  goes  on  in  a  *'  Gas  Machine  " 69 

Coal  Gas  and  Water  Gas  Apparatus 72 

By-Products  Coke  Oven  Gas  Apparatus 76 

Purifying  Box        77 

Relief  Gas  Holder 78 

Gun  barrels  screwed  together  into  a  continuous  Tube 

for  delivering  Gas 80 

Reading  Gas  Meter  (1860)  and  mailing  Letter  in  Box 

attached  to  Gas  Light  Post 84 

Gas  Meter  with  glass  Sides  shows  inside  Mechanism      .     85 

Poor  and  good  arrangement  of  a  Kitchen 101 

"  Gas  Kitchen  on  Wheels  " 102 

Modern  Gas  Heater  of  Radiant  Fire  Type     .     .     .     .103 

English  Gas  Cooker 106 

Gas  Stove  in  Use  in  the  United  States  before  1850     .     .106 

Gas  Stove  in  Use,  1877 106 

Goodwin  Company's  "  Sundial  "  Gas  Stove  bought  in 

Brooklyn,     1850,    by    Uncle    Jerry    Howard    of 

Galena,  Illinois 106 

Pompeian   Brazier  with  Water-back 107 

First  Bathtub  built  about  2000  B.  C,  found   in  the 

Ruins  of  the  Palace  of  King  Minos 107 


Illustrations 


PAGE 

Before  the  Days  of  gas-fired  Water  Heaters  .     .     .     .110 
Roman  Hypocaust,  the  forerunner  of  the  modern  hot- 
air  Furnace 116 

Early  English  terra  cotta  Gas  Stoves 119 

Explosions  in  the  sun,  hurling  Gas  a  quarter  of  a  mil- 
lion IMiles 124 

Gas-fired  Steam  Engine  for  running  Sewing  iVIachine  .   125 
Ice    Machine    burning    Gas,    producing    Refrigeration 

equivalent  to  500  Pounds  daily 128 

Battery  of  Coffee  Roasters 128 

Shrinking  Cloth  with  Steam  from  gas-fired  Boiler     .     .129 
Keating  Rivets  and  bending  Angle  Iron  and  Plates  in 

Manufacturing    Fire   Doors 129 

Products  derived  from  Coal 152 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  BIRTH  OF  MOTHER  EARTH 

** Let  there  be  Light!"  proclaimed  the  Almighty  Lord, 
Astonished  Chaos  heard  the  potent  word; 
Through  all  his  reahiis  the  kindling  ether  runs. 
And  the  mass  starts  into  million  suns. — Darwin. 

MAN  —  whether  savage  or  civilized — has 
constantly  tried  to  explain  how  our 
Mother  Earth  was  born.  Many  theories  have 
been  advanced  but  none  are  entirely  satisfactory, 
so  mysterious  and  wonderful  has  her  birth  re- 
mained to  this  very  day. 

We  all  are  familiar,  of  course,  with  the  story 
of  the  Creation  of  the  World  as  told  in  the 
Bible,  which  reads  as  follows: 

In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth. 

And  the  earth  was  without  form,  and  void;  and  darkness 
was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep.  And  the  Spirit  of  God 
moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters. 

And  God  said,  "  Let  there  be  Light ;"  and  there  was  light. 

Some  learned  men,  however,  have  been  able 
to  read  history  in  the  Earth's  crust  and  in  the 

1 


2  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

starry  heaven  which  have  led  them  to  believe 
that  the  Earth  we  live  on  was  once,  many 
million  years  ago,  a  whirling  mass  of  gas  that 
had  been  thrown  off  by  some  larger  gaseous 
body  as  this  traveled  swiftly  through  space. 

These  men  think  that  this  vast  formless  mass 
of  gas  was  burning  as  it  spun  around  in  space, 
and  that,  after  ages  and  ages,  this  incandescent 
mass  gradually  cooled  enough  to  become  a 
molten  round  body. 

At  any  rate,  many  agree  that  there  was,  at 
some  time  in  the  Earth's  history,  an  intense  heat 
while  it  was  in  the  making. 

Later,  probably  thousands  of  years,  the  out- 
side of  this  round  and  spinning  body  cooled 
until  it  became  solid.  This  crust  was  thin  at 
first  but  kept  growing  thicker  and  thicker  as  the 
inside  grew  cooler. 

Neither  animal  nor  vegetable  life  existed  yet 
because  the  heat  in  the  crust  was  still  too  great. 

As  the  heat  grew  less,  the  Earth  became 
smaller  and  smaller.  The  crust  shrank  and 
cracked  in  spots,  and  thus  mountains,  valleys, 
and  plains  were  formed. 


The  Birth  of  Mother  Earth 


And  that,  briefly,  is  probably  how  Mother 
Earth  was  born. 

Which  makes  gas  older  than  the  everlasting 
hills. 


CHAPTER  II 

HOW  THE  QUEST  FOR  GOLD  REVEALED  THE  SOUL 
OF  COAL 

Alchemy  is  a  pretty  kind  of  game. 

Somewhat  like  tricks  o'  the  cards,  to  cheat  a  man  with 
charming  .... 
What  else  are  all  your  terms. 

Whereon  no  one  of  your  writers  'grees  with  other? 
Of  your  elixir,  your  lac  virginus, 

Your  stone,  your  med'cine,  and  your  chrysosperme. 
Your  sal,  your  sulphur,  and  your  mercury, 

Your  oil  of  height,  your  tree  of  life,  your  blood. 
Your  marchesite,  your  tutie,  your  magnesia, 

Your  toad,  your  crow,  your  dragon,  and  your  panther, 

Ben  Jonson's  Alchemist, 

AS  THE  surface  of  the  Earth  shrank  and  its 
±\.  crust  cracked,  layers  from  the  interior  con- 
taining minerals  were  brought  to  the  surface. 
Later  vegetable  and  animal  life,  including  man, 
appeared  upon  Mother  Earth. 

As  man  gradually  learned  how  to  prepare 
food  and  to  build  shelter,  he  also  learned  how 
to  use  minerals  for  various  purposes.  But  of  all 
the  metals  such  as  iron,  copper,  silver,  and  gold, 
men  came  to  value  gold  the  most. 


Quest  for  Gold  Revealed  Soul  of  Coal        5 

Many  people  thought — even  some  today 
think  —  that  gold  is  the  most  desirable  thing  in 
the  world. 

King  Midas  of  old  thought  so.  It  was  he, 
you  remember,  who  grew  so  greedy  for  gold 
that  he  expressed  the  wish  that  everything  he 
touched  might  turn  golden.  He  got  his  wish, 
but  he  had  scarcely  seated  himself  at  the  break- 
fast table  before  he  was  very  sorry  that  he  had. 
For  everything  he  touched  turned  to  gold,  his 
food,  and  even  his  only  daughter,  so  that  she 
could  not  move,  hear,  or  talk. 

Then  Midas  suddenly  discovered  that,  after 
all,  there  were  in  this  world  things  more  de- 
sirable than  gold,  and  that  to  him  the  most 
desirable  thing  was  his  rosy-cheeked  daughter, 
to  whom  Hawthorne,  in  his  Wonder  Book,  gave 
the  name  Marygold. 

Fortunately  for  Midas,  however,  he  was  en- 
abled to  restore  to  their  former  state  the  things 
he  had  touched  and  made  golden,  and  so  he  lived 
very  happily  with  his  daughter  to  a  ripe  old  age. 

In  spite  of  the  sad  experience  of  King  Midas, 
whose  story  practically  every  one  came  to  know, 


6  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

there  lived  in  many  lands  men  who  were  trying 
to  make  gold.  They  considered  gold  to  be  the 
perfect  metal  and  so  called  it  the  noble  metal, 
while  all  other  metals  were  considered  base  or 
inferior. 

These  early  research  men  reasoned  that,  since 
plants,  animals,  and  persons  grew,  changed,  and 
developed,  metals  and  minerals  must  also  do  so. 
They  felt  that  if  nature  could  change  base  metals 
into  gold,  man  ought  to  be  able  to  do  so  too.  So 
here  and  there  were  persons  who  were  con- 
tinually mixing  and  heating  all  sorts  of  metals 
and  substances  together  in  their  efforts  to  trans- 
mute them  into  the  noble  metal. 

These  men  were  known  as  Alchemists,  and  of 
them  Milton  said: 

By  fire 
Of  sooty  coal  th'  empiric  alchemist 
Can  turn,  or  holds  it  possible  to  turn, 
Metals  of  drossest  ore  to  perfect  gold. 

People  were  ignorant  and  consequently  very 
superstitious  in  early  days,  and  as  a  rule  avoided 
alchemists  because  these  were  supposed  to  be 
students  of  magic,  the  Black  Arts,  and  in  league 
with  the  Devil. 


Quest  for  Gold  Revealed  Soul  of  Coal        7 

Until  a  few  centuries  ago  people  believed 
pretty  generally  that  the  earth  was  inhabited  by 
hobgoblins,  the  fire  with  salamanders,  the  air 
with  fiends,  and  the  water  with  river  and  lake 
spirits.  Children  were  terrified  by  their  nurses 
with  stories  of: 

An  ugly  devil  having  horns  on  his  head,  fire  in  his  mouth, 
and  a  tail  in  his  breech,  eyes  like  a  bason,  fangs  like  a  dog, 
claws  like  a  bear,  a  skin  like  a  nigger,  and  a  voyce  roaring 
like  a  lion.  And  young  children  were  so  affrighted  with 
bul-beggars,  spirits,  with  witches,  urchins,  elves,  hags,  faries, 
satyrs,  pan,  faunes,  syrens,  Kit-with-the-canstick,  tritons, 
centaures,  dwarfs,  g)^ants,  imps,  the  mare,  Robin  Good- 
fellow,  the  spoorn,  the  man  in  the  oak,  calcars,  the  hell-wain, 
the  fire  drake,  the  puckle,  Tom  Thumble,  hob-goblins,  Tom 
Thumbler,  boneless  and  such  other  bugs  that  they  became 
fearful  of  their  own  shadows. 

The  men  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  study 
of  alchemy  had,  of  course,  to  make  a  living,  and 
it  was  only  quite  natural  that  some  of  them 
should  prey  upon  the  credulity  and  superstitions 
of  the  people.  And  so  there  existed  among  the 
zealous  and  honest  students  of  this  art  many 
greedy  fakers,  charlatans,  and  impostors  — 
whose  methods  were. very  much  like  those  used 
today  by  magicians,  "gold-brick  artists,"  and 
"confidence  men."     It  also  appeared  that  "the 


8  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

pleasure  is  as  great  of  being  cheated  as  to  cheat." 
According  to  Sir  Martin  Shee: 

Wherever  power,  or  pride,  or  wealth  keep  court. 

Behold  this  fulsome  race  resort; 

A  motley  group — a  party-coloured  pack. 

Of  knave  and  fool — of  quidnunck,  and  of  quack* 

Dabblers  in  science — dealers  in  virtues. 

And  sycophants  of  every  form  and  hue. 

Low  Artists  too,  a  busy  babbling  fry. 

That  frisk  and  wriggle  in  a  great  mans  eye. 

But  these  students,  especially  the  honest  ones, 
worked  away  in  stuffy  and  messy  rooms  classi- 
fying and  experimenting  days  and  nights  with 
scarcely  any  rest  just  the  way  Edison  has  done 
in  his  laboratory.  Here  is  proof  that  the  alchem- 
ists did  not  observe  any  union  hours — for  when 
people  are  really  interested  in  their  work  they 
never  pay  any  attention  to  time. 

One  alchemist  wrote: 

Never  hire  married  men  as  assistants,  for  they  soon  give 
in  and  pretend  they  are  tired  out.  Hire  your  workmen  for 
certain  stipulated  w^ages  and  not  for  longer  periods  than 
twenty-four  hours  at  a  time.  G'lYt  them  higher  wages  than 
they  would  receive  elsewhere,  and  be  prompt  and  ready  in 
your  payments. 

To  the  majority  of  those  who  studied  this 
fascinating  art,  I  fear,  it  brought  little  reward. 


Quest  for  Gold  Revealed  Soul  of  Coal       9 

For:  ^^Alchemy  is  a  coquette  inviting  flirtations, 
but  denying  favors;  an  art  without  art;  of  which 
the  beginning  is  avarice,  the  middle  falsehood, 
and  the  end  either  a  beggar's  staff  or  the 
gallows." 

As  early  as  50  A.  D.  a  school  of  Alchemists 
flourished  in  Alexandria,  Egypt,  but  the  art  pro- 
gressed very  slowly  for  the  next  two  hundred 
years.  The  Alchemist's  laboratory  equipment 
was  still  very  crude  and  there  was  no  accurate 
record  of  what  had  been  done  before  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  the  Alexandrian  Library  had  at 
that  period  about  500,000  books.  It  was  at 
Alexandria  that  the  Jews  translated  the  Old 
Testament  into  Greek,  and  where  Ptolemy,  the 
Greek  writer  on  geography,  taught  that  the 
earth  was  round.  It  was  Ptolemy's  writings 
that  induced  Columbus  to  search  for  India. 

In  287  A.  D.,  Emperor  Diocletian  destroyed 
the  Alexandrian  Library  and  prohibited  the 
study  of  alchemy  because  he  feared  that  if  they 
discovered  the  Philosopher's  Stone,  and  so 
learned  how  to  turn  base  metals  into  gold,  they 
might  overturn  the  Roman  rule. 


10  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

In  984  A.  D.,  the  famous  Alexandrian  Li- 
brary, which  the  later  school  of  Alchemists  had 
managed  to  build  up,  was  destroyed,  it  is  said, 
by  the  Mohammedan  General  Amru  at  the 
order  of  Caliph  Abu  Bekr  who  argued  thus: 
"  If  the  books  agree  with  the  Koran,  they  are 
not  needed;  if  opposed,  they  are  injurious." 
This  argument  set  back  civilization  and  science 
many  hundred  years. 

And  so  the  study  of  alchemy  had  to  be  begun 
all  over  again.  Some  continued  it  for  the  love 
of  knowledge  but,  I  fear,  most  of  them  did  it 
for  the  love  of  gold,  "  the  root  of  all  evil."  But 
they  were  all  seeking  the  great  secret — some 
called  it  the  Philosopher's  Stone,  others  the 
Elixir  of  Life,  others  the  Stone  of  Wisdom,  and 
so  on,  and  so  on. 

According  to  these  early  Ponce  de  Leons,  the 
great  secret  was  supposed  to  possess  magical 
powers  such  as : 

The  greatest  disease  could  be  cured,  sorrow  and  evil  and 
every  hurtful  thing  avoided,  by  help  of  which  we  pass  from 
darkness  to  light,  from  a  desert  and  wilderness  to  a  habitation 
and  home,  and  from  straitness  and  necessities  to  a  large  and 
ample  estate. 


Quest  for  Gold  Revealed  Soul  of  Coal      11 

Thus  it  seems  that  besides  trying  to  transmute 
metals,  some  also  tried  to  learn  how  to  cure 
people  who  were  ill,  and  how  to  attain  spiritual 
happiness.  For  the  study  of  alchemy  came  to 
include  that  of  making  drugs,  and  that  is  the 
way  apothecary  shops  and  our  modern  drug 
stores  originated.  It  also  developed  into  the 
wonderful  science  of  chemistry  of  today. 

It  is  lucky  for  us  that  these  alchemists  were 
so  industrious,  otherwise  we  would  today  not 
have  many  things  which  make  our  lives  bearable 
and  enjoyable. 

Among  the  alchemists  who  searched  dili- 
gently for  the  Philosopher's  Stone  was  John 
Baptist  van  Helmont,  born  at  Brussels  in  1577. 
He  began  by  studying  medicine  but  early 
turned  his  attention  to  the  study  of  chemistry, 
and  soon  became  ''A  man  of  Parts  who  divined 
into  the  Secrets  of  all  the  Arts."  He  had  been 
inspired  by  the  writings  of  Thomas  a  Kempis 
and  was  very  religious.  His  religion  was  a 
practical  one  as  you  can  judge  by  the  fact  that 
he  never  charged  any  one  who  came  to  him  for 
medical  attention.    Fortunately  he  was  not  de- 


12  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

pendent  upon  fees  for  a  living,  but  had  means 
to  buy  apparatus  and  materials  for  his  chemical 
researches. 

Van  Helmont  was  a  firm  believer  in  the 
powers  of  the  Philosopher's  Stone  and  claimed 
to  have  succeeded  several  times  in  turning 
metals  into  gold.  If  he  did,  he  was  unable  to 
do  it  the  next  time  he  tried,  so  he  kept  on  ex- 
perimenting. 

One  day  while  working  away  in  his  crude 
laboratory  he  made  a  startling  discovery.  In  his 
own  words,  he  found  that  a  heated  crucible 
"  did  belch  forth  a  wild  spirit  or  breath.  This 
spirit,  up  to  the  present  time  unknown,  but  not 
susceptible  of  being  confined  in  vessels,  nor 
capable  of  being  reduced  to  visible  body,  I  call 
by  the  new  name  of  gas." 

No  doubt  van  Helmont  was  thoroughly 
frightened  at  first  when  he  saw  or  felt  the  pres- 
ence of  this  spirit,  and  it  was  quite  natural  for 
him  to  refer  to  it  as  a  geest.  The  words  "  Geest " 
and  *^  Geist "  in  the  Dutch  and  German 
languages  mean  ghost.  Some  students,  however, 
think   that   the   word,    gas,   was   named    from 


RE  GAS  4  ELECTRIC  NEWS 


Jean    Baptiste    van     Helmont 
Who  Gave  Gas  Its  Name 


Philippe  Lebon.  French 
Discoverer  of  Gas 


COURTESY.    BALTIMORE  GAS   4    ELECTRIC    NEWS. 

William     Murdock,     Inventor 

of   First   Steam   Locomotive 

and  the  First  Gas  Engineer 


Frederick  Albert  Winsor. 
Whose  Vision  of  Gas  Serv- 
ice Would  Assure  a  "City 
Beautiful" 


Quest  for  Gold  Revealed  Soul  of  Coal      13 

the  Greek  word,  ''Chaos,"  meaning  "without 
form." 

But  the  ghost  that  frightened  van  Helmont 
doesn't  scare  any  of  us  today.  Every  boy  and 
girl  is  familiar  with  the  experiment  of  heating 
a  piece  of  wood  or  coal  in  a  test  tube,  and  seeing 
the  gas  escaping  at  the  top.  You  can  perform 
this  experiment  any  time. 

Take  a  common  clay  pipe,  put  a  small  lump 
of  coal  in  the  bowl,  then  cover  the  bowl  air 
tight  with  a  thin  layer  of  soft  clay.  Hold  the 
bowl  of  the  pipe  over  a  burning  gas  jet  or  a 
small  fire  —  and  look  out  that  you  don't  burn 
your  fingers  or  set  anything  on  fire.  The  coal 
in  the  bowl  will  soon  begin  to  give  off  a  gas. 
Apply  a  lighted  match  to  the  end  of  the  pipe 
stem  and  you'll  find  that  this  gas  burns. 

After  all  the  gas  has  been  driven  off  from  the 
coal,  remove  the  clay  covering  of  the  bowl.  Now 
you  will  find  that  the  heavy  coal  has  changed 
from  black  to  gray,  and  has  swelled  out  into  a 
light  and  porous  substance.  This  we  call  coke 
and  is  practically  pure  carbon.  Throw  it  into 
a  fire  and  you'll  find  that  it  burns  quickly  with- 


14  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

out  smoke  and  little  ash,  provided  the  coal  was 
of  good  quality. 

In  this  manner,  then,  did  gas  come  to  be 
discovered  and  named.  Both  discovery  and 
christening  were  enshrouded  with  mystery,  and 
mysterious  and  elusive  has  gas  remained  unto 
this  day. 

Gas  may  thus  rightly  be  called  the  Soul  of 
Coal. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ^'WILD  SPIRIT"  RE-DISCOVERED  AND  TAMED 

To  great  ends  and  projects  had  they  life  been  given; 

Right  well  and  nobly  has  the  goal  been  won; 
For  this,  O  Great  Discoverer,  thou  has  striven; 

Take,  then,  our  thanks,  for  all  that  thou  hast  done. 

— Nora  Hastings. 

TO  MANY  readers  it  has,  no  doubt,  oc- 
curred that  people  must  have  known  about 
gas  long  before  van  Helmont's  experiment.  Yes, 
there  were  people  who  knew  about  gas,  but  it 
was  the  kind  that  issued  from  the  ground  and 
to  the  people  of  ancient  times  it  was  thought  to 
be  ordinary  air  mixed  w^th  some  ill-smelling 
substance  or  even  manifestations  of  spirits  — 
good  or  evil. 

And  these  ancient  people  were  just  as  mysti- 
fied and  terrified  at  these  wild  spirits  as  was  the 
alchemist  who  gave  the  name  to  gas.  They 
believed  them  to  be  the  working  of  some  super- 
natural agency.  Sometimes  the  ill-smelling  air 
or  vapor  was  set  on  fire  by  lightning  and  then 
the  natives  were  more  frightened  than  ever. 

15 


16  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

In  many  lands  the  element  of  fire  was  wor- 
shiped. This  had  its  origin  because  of  the 
difficulty  of  starting  fire  with  a  spark  and  also 
because  of  the  attractiveness  of  light  over 
darkness;  also  because  fire  became  connected 
with  purity.  China  and  India  had  their  fire- 
worshipers.  So  did  Egypt,  Assyria  and  Chal- 
dea.  In  Persia  the  priests  had,  in  their 
devotion  to  the  sacred  element,  established 
certain  religious  rites.  These  priests  were 
known  by  the  name  of  Magi,  and  were  sooth- 
sayers or  fortune  tellers.  The  words,  magic  and 
magicians,  come  from  the  word.  Magi.  The 
Three  Wise  Men,  who  followed  the  star  in  the 
East,  were  Magi  priests.  The  picture  showing 
these  three  men  worshiping  the  Christ  Child 
is,  as  you  know,  called  the  Adoration  of  the 
Magi. 

Here  one  idea  of  gas  as  a  magician  has  sug- 
gested another  and  another  until  I  almost  forgot 
to  remind  you  how  gas  was  discovered  in 
Greece.  It  happened  this  way:  While  a 
Greek  lad  was  looking  after  his  goats  one  day  he 
noticed  that  some  of  them  became  very  giddy 


''  Wild  Spirit"  Re-discovered  and  Tamed  17 

whenever  they  came  to  a  certain  spot.  He  went 
to  investigate  the  cause  of  this  peculiar  be- 
havior of  the  animals  and  was  very  much 
affected  himself  by  something  that  arose  out  of 
the  ground.  He  lost  no  time  in  telling  the 
villagers  about  it  and  they  ran  in  great  excite- 
ment to  the  place  and  all  had  the  same  ex- 
perience. 

In  those  days  the  Greeks  considered  persons 
who  were  weak-minded  or  epileptic  as  special 
favorites  of  their  gods  and  so  treated  such 
unfortunates  reverently  and  as  if  they  were 
inspired.  Whatever  it  was  that  issued  from  the 
ground,  it  seemed  to  make  the  villagers  light- 
headed and  talkative.  They  acted  queerly  and 
their  speech  became  very  disconnected  and  hard 
to  understand.  And  so  the  villagers  concluded 
that  there  must  be  a  god  living  at  this  place. 
They  later  appointed  a  priestess  to  converse  with 
this  god,  and  also  built  a  temple  where  persons 
might  go  for  advice,  provided  they  brought 
gifts  to  the  god.  And  that  is  how  "gas  became 
the  Oracle  of  the  Gods"  and  why  the  Temple 
and  Oracle  of  Delphi  became  famous. 


18  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

The  gas  at  Delphi  is  thought  to  have  been 
natural  gas.  This  gas  was  found  in  many  parts 
of  the  world,  but  it  took  many  centuries  before 
its  value  was  understood.  China  was  the  first 
to  turn  it  to  a  practical  use.  Near  Pekin,  gas, 
escaping  from  beds  of  soft  coal,  was  carried 
through  pipes  made  of  bamboo  to  salt  works 
and  used  to  boil  the  salt  water  so  as  to  evaporate 
the  water  from  the  salt.  The  gas  was  brought 
through  bamboo  pipes  into  Pekin  for  lighting 
that  city. 

Natural  gas  is  often  found  in  connection  with 
oil,  and  petroleum  has  been  known  from  the 
earliest  times.  The  first  notice  of  it  in  the  Bible 
occurs  in  Maccabees,  Book  II,  Chapter  1,  which 
relates  that  when  the  Jews  were  led  into  Persia, 
they  found  pits  in  which  the  priests  concealed 
the  sacred  fire  they  required  for  their  sacrifices. 
These  pits  were  enclosed  and  called  nephtar 
from  which  we  get  the  word,  naphtha.  This 
Jew's  pitch  was  probably  the  bitumen  of  Judea. 
The  naphtha  springs  of  Persia,  the  fire-wor- 
shipers of  Baku,  and  the  fire-wells  of  China 
recall  other  interesting  facts  and  fancies  about 


First  Oil  Well  Drilled   (69  Feet  Deep- 


August.  185^ 


First  Oil  Well  in  England.    Bored  3.078  Feet  Deep  at  Hards- 
toft,   Derbyshire,   60  Years  After   Drake's   Well,  by   American 
Geologists.    Engineers,    Drillers,    and    ^[achinery 


^'  Wild  Spirit ''  Re-discovered  and  Tamed  19 

the  early  knowledge  of  rock-oil.  Bitumen  was 
used  in  building  the  towxr  of  Babel,  and  paving 
the  streets  of  Babylon  2000  B.  C. 

The  United  States  is  fortunate  in  that  it 
possesses  great  stores  of  natural  gas,  oil,  and 
coal.  A  Franciscan  missionary,  Joseph  de  la 
Roche  d'Allion,  mentions,  in  a  letter  written  in 
1629,  oil  springs  in  the  State  of  New  York.  Oil 
seemed  to  have  been  a  favorite  medicine  of  the 
Seneca  Indians;  Kier,  a  druggist  of  Pittsburgh, 
who  claimed  it  cured  his  wife,  bottled  it,  and 
sold  it  as  *^  American  oil,"  long  before  that 
region  became  famous  for  its  oil  and  natural  gas. 

The  first  oil  well  in  the  world  to  be  drilled 
was  on  the  flat  lands  of  Oil  City,  south  of  Titus- 
ville,  Crawford  County,  Pennsylvania,  August 
28,  1859,  under  the  direction  of  Colonel  E.  L. 
Drake.  John  D.  Rockefeller,  who  developed 
this  industry,  arrived  there  in  1865. 

Many  oil  wells,  while  being  drilled,  yielded 
a  gas  which  was  soon  applied  to  useful  work. 
The  natural  gas  industry  began  after  1870. 
Fairview,  Pennsylvania,  made  extensive  use  of 
natural  gas  in  1872. 


20  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Natural  gas  has  been  found  in  greatest  abun- 
dance in  Pennsylvania,  West  Virginia,  Ohio, 
Oklahoma  and  Texas.  The  French  Jesuits  dis- 
covered and  reported  columns  of  fire  while  they 
were  exploring  the  Ohio  Valley.  Washington 
was  so  impressed  by  it  that  in  1775  he  tried  to 
have  one  square  mile  in  Kanawha  Valley — the 
center  of  burning  gas  —  set  aside  for  public 
exhibit. 

The  first  use  made  of  natural  gas  in  the 
United  States,  however,  was  in  1821  in  the  town 
of  Fredonia,  Chautauqua  County,  New  York, 
where  gas  had  been  piped  to  supply  thirty 
burners.  The  village  inn  was  lighted  by  gas 
when  La  Fayette  passed  through  Fredonia  in 
1824.  Virginia  used  natural  gas  for  heating 
furnaces  in  evaporating  salt  water. 

Natural  gas,  itself,  yields  a  valuable  gas, 
helium,  now  being  used  in  balloons  because  it 
will  not  catch  on  fire. 

While  England  is  well  supplied  with  coal,  it 
is  thought  to  have  little  natural  gas  or  petroleum 
deposits.  But  in  the  early  days  of  coal  mining, 
gas  in  some  form  was,  of  course,  encountered. 


^'  Wild  Spirit ''  Re-discovered  and  Tamed  21 

While  this  gas  is  different  from  natural  gas  and 
from  gas  that  is  manufactured,  it  is  extremely 
interesting  to  learn  what  people  thought  about 
it.  Miners  were  overcome  by  it  and  so  called  it 
"choke-damp."  It  not  only  choked  miners  to 
death  but  also  caused  explosions  when  it  came 
in  contact  with  the  miner's  open  lamp,  and  so 
was  also  called  "  fire-damp." 

Thomas  Shirley  in  1667  wrote  in  the  Trans- 
action of  the  Royal  Philosophical  Society  of 
London  thus  about  natural  gas  that  arose  from 
a  well  and  ground  near  Wigan.  He  had  visited 
the  place  in  1659  and  found  a  spring  ''Where 
the  water  did  burn  like  oyle,"  and  "did  boyle 
and  heave  like  water  in  a  pot."  On  investiga- 
tion he  found  this  to  "  arise  from  a  strong  breath, 
as  it  were,  a  wind  which  ignited  on  the  approach 
of  a  lighted  candle"  and  "did  burn  bright  and 
vigorous." 

Between  1660  and  1670  Dr.  Clayton,  a  rector 
of  Crofton,  in  Yorkshire,  experimented  with 
natural  gas.  He  set  a  man  to  dig  the  ground 
at  Wigan  and  found  at  a  depth  of  half  a  yard 
a  "shelly  coal."    This  he  heated  in  a  closed 


22  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

vessel  and  found  that  a  '^  spirit  which  issued  out 
caught  fire  at  the  flame  of  a  candle."  He  col- 
lected the  gas  in  bladders  and  amused  his  friends 
by  pricking  holes  in  them  with  a  pin  and  light- 
ing the  colorless  gas  with  a  candle.  Dr.  Clayton 
thus  succeeded  in  producing  from  coal  van 
Helmont's  "wild  spirit,"  but  he  also,  like  many 
earlier  and  later  experimenters,  failed  to  turn 
gas  to  any  practical  use. 

Over  a  hundred  years  after  Shirley  and  Clay- 
ton had  described  the  burning  of  natural  gas 
and  coal  gas,  another  Englishman  began  to 
experiment  with  various  kinds  of  gases.  He 
found  that  "  the  gas  obtained  by  distillation  from 
coal,  peat,  wood,  and  other  inflammable  sub- 
stances burnt  with  great  brilliancy  upon  being 
set  fire  to;  and  it  occurred  to  him,  that  by  con- 
fining and  conducting  it  through  tubes,  it  might 
be  employed  as  an  economical  substitute  for 
lamps  and  candles."  This  man  was  William 
Murdock. 

In  1792  (three  hundred  years  after  Columbus 
discovered  America)  he  conducted  gas  through 
seventy  feet  of  tinned  iron  and  copper  tubes  to 


jo       Uh 


s  i^ 


"  Wild  Spirit  '*  Re-discovered  and  Tamed  23 

light  his  house  and  grounds  at  Redruth,  in 
Cornwall.  In  the  wall  of  a  modest  house  in 
Cross  Street  is  a  tablet  bearing  the  following 
inscription: 

WILLIAM  MURDOCK 

Lived  in  this  house 

1782-1798 

Made  the  first  locomotive  here, 

and  tested  it  in  1784. 

Invented  Gas-Lighting, 

and  used  it  in  this  house  in 

1792. 

Murdock's  regular  work,  that  of  construction 
and  erection  engineer  for  James  Watt,  the  in- 
ventor of  the  steam  engine,  prevented  him  from 
perfecting  his  idea.  However,  in  1797  he  had 
lighted  his  own  house  and  office  at  Old  Com- 
nock  with  gas;  and  in  1798  had  lighted  one 
of  Boulton  and  Watt's  shops  at  Soho,  near 
Birmingham. 

In  April,  1802,  he  gave  a  public  exhibition  of 
gas  lighting  at  Soho  to  celebrate  the  treaty 
between  Great  Britain,  and  France,  Spain  and 


24         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Holland,  known  as  the  Peace  of  Amiens  —  a 
city  famous  for  being  the  birthplace  of  Peter 
the  Hermit  and  also  for  its  cathedral. 

A  man  named  Matthews,  who  visited  this 
public  display,  described  it  as  follows: 

The  illumination  of  Soho  works  on  this  occasion  was  one 
of  extraordinary  splendour.  The  whole  front  of  that  ex- 
tensive range  of  buiHIngs  was  ornamented  with  a  great 
variety  of  devices,  that  admirably  displayed  many  of  the 
varied  forms  of  which  gas  light  is  susceptible.  This  lumi- 
nous spectacle  was  as  novel  as  it  was  astonishing;  and 
Birmingham  poured  forth  in  numerous  population  to  gaze 
at  and  to  admire  this  wonderful  display  of  the  combined 
effects  of  science  and  art. 

Murdock  estimated  the  yearly  cost  of  this 
lighting,  two  hours  daily,  to  be  £2,000  for 
candles  and  only  £600  with  gas. 

In  1804  Murdock  built  a  gas  works  and 
lighted  the  cotton  mill  of  Messrs.  Phillips  and 
Lee  at  Manchester  with  900  burners.  On  Feb- 
ruary 25,  1808,  he  read  a  paper  before  the  Royal 
Society  of  London  describing  this  installation 
and  was  awarded  the  Count  Rumford  Gold 
Medal. 

Murdock  was  born  in  1754  at  Bellow  Mill, 
Ayrshire,  Scotland,  birthplace  of  Dunlop,  in- 


^^  Wild  Spirit  '*  Re-discovered  and  Tamed  25 

ventor  of  the  pneumatic  tire.  He  was  said  to 
have  worn  a  hat  made  of  wood  turned  in  an  oval 
lathe  of  his  own  invention.  But,  if  his  hat  was 
wooden,  his  head  was  not,  for  he  has  many 
achievements  to  his  credit.   While  working  with 


Early  experimental  gas  plant 

Boulton  and  Watt  he  made  many  improvements 
in  the  steam  engine;  invented  the  D-slide  valve 
used  to  this  day  in  steam  engines;  also  invented 
the  "  gas  tip."  He  first  burned  gas  by  lighting 
it  at  the  end  of  a  pipe.     One  day  he  wanted  to 


26  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Stop  the  flow  of  gas  in  a  hurry  and  seized  his 
wife's  thimble  and  thrust  it  over  the  light  which 
was  immediately  extinguished.  Noticing,  how- 
ever, that  the  flow  of  gas  had  not  been  entirely 
stopped  he  applied  a  match  and  discovered  that 
the  thimble  was  full  of  holes  and  that  the  tiny 
jets  gave  a  brighter  illumination  than  the  big 
flare  from  the  end  of  the  pipe.  Acting  on  this 
suggestion  he  constructed  what  became  known 
as  the  Cockspur  burner — the  forerunner  of  the 
''  flat  flame  burner.'' 

He  was  always  tinkering  away  at  some  con- 
traption generally  useful.  His  early  experi- 
ments in  gas-making  were  conducted  in  an  old 
kettle  borrowed  from  his  mother.  Learning  of 
a  newly  patented  steam  engine  he  walked  to 
Birmingham  and  obtained  employment  with 
James  Watt,  who  had  become  associated  with 
Matthew  Boulton  for  the  purpose  of  making 
steam  engines  at  Soho  Works.  These  engines 
were  an  improvement  over  the  Newcomen  en- 
gine, and  wxre  used  for  pumping  water  out  of 
the  coal  mines.  Before  very  long,  Murdock 
was  traveling  day  and  night  from  mine  to  mine 


''  Wild  Spirit  "  Re-discovered  and  Tamed  27 

installing  steam  engines  and  pumps  or  fixing 
balky  ones. 

He  had  many  opportunities  to  work  for  rival 
firms  but  always  remained  loyal  to  his  employ- 
ers. For  some  time  he  had  felt  that  it  was  prac- 
ticable to  apply  steam  as  power  for  drawing 
coal  cars  and  carriages,  but  Watt  disliked  the 
idea  of  anyone  but  himself  developing  the 
steam  engines  for  any  purpose,  and  always  dis- 
couraged Murdock  by  saying:  "You  are  hunt- 
ing shadows,  William That  would  mean 

a  miracle." 

In  spite  of  this  discouragement  William  spent 
many  evenings  between  1781  and  1783  in  build- 
ing a  steam  locomotive.  It  resembled  a  tricycle, 
19  inches  long,  14  inches  high,  with  a  copper 
boiler  with  a  fire  box  and  flue,  a  spirit  lamp  and 
one  double-acting  cylinder,  two  driving  wheels 
and  a  steering  wheel.  After  making  satisfac- 
tory trials  of  his  locomotive  in  his  house,  he 
tried  it  out  one  evening.  According  to  Alex- 
ander Murdock: 

It  was  a  dark  night,  early  in  the  year  of  1784,  and  the 
road  chosen  was  a  lonely  lane  bordered  with  high  hedgerows, 


28  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

leading  to  the  parish  church  and  rectory.  The  boiler  was 
filled,  the  lamp  was  lighted;  soon  the  steam  got  up,  and  off 
went  the  engine,  puffing  and  snorting  at  the  rate  of  6  or  8 
miles  an  hour.  It  soon  outran  the  inventor,  and  then  the 
night  air  was  rent  by  a  succession  of  frightened  cries  for 
help.  Murdock,  hurrying  up,  found  the  worthy  rector, 
who,  hearing  a  puffing  and  snorting,  and  seeing  only  a  fiery 
eye  rushing  along  not  much  above  the  level  of  the  ground, 
believed  he  had  encountered  the  Evil  One  in  person. 

As  Watt's  agent,  Murdock  was  soon  riding 
around  from  mine  to  mine  in  his  rattling  and 
snorting  steam  carriage  which  he  lighted  with 
gas. 

So,  if  it  had  not  been  for  Watt's  opposition, 
steam  locomotives  would  have  been  working 
forty  years  before  George  Stephenson  built 
them,  for  hauling  coal  cars  at  Killingworth  and 
for  hauling  freight  between  Liverpool  and 
Manchester. 

Murdock  also  used  a  gas  lantern  made  of  a 
bladder  equipped  with  a  tube  and  a  gas  tip. 
This  with  his  w^ooden  hat  made  him  appear 
very  ridiculous  at  night.  Murdock  was  really 
the  "father  of  the  gas  industry,"  when  priority 
of  practical  achievement  is  considered.  He 
died  in  1839. 


CHAPTER   IV 

HOW     A     MADMAN     STARTED     THE     FIRST     GAS 
COMPANY 

Fm  thankful  that  the  sun  and  stars 

Are  all  hung  so  high; 
That  no  presumptuous  hand  can  stretch 

And  pull  them  from  the  sky. 
If  they  were  not,  I  have  no  doubt 

But  some  reforming  ass 
Would  recommend  to  take  them  down 

And  heat  the  world  with  gas. — Anon. 

WHILE  Murdock  was  experimenting 
with  coal  gas  several  other  men  were 
interested  in  the  same  subject.  Jean  Pierre 
Minckelers  demonstrated  in  1784  to  his  class  at 
the  University  of  Louvain  that  a  gas  distilled 
from  coal  v^^ould  burn.  Lebon,  another  French- 
man, in  September,  1799,  obtained  a  patent  for 
making  gas  by  distilling  coal  or  wood  and 
in  1801  lighted  his  house  and  gardens  in  Paris 
with  gas. 

A  German  by  the  name  of  Frederick  Albert 
Winsor  heard  of  Lebon's  experiment  and  jour- 

29 


30  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

neyed  from  Frankfort  to  Paris  to  see  "  the 
wondrous  effects  of  common  smoke  being  made 
to  burn  with  greater  brilliancy  and  beauty  than 
wax  or  oil."  He  tried  hard  to  learn  Lebon's 
secret,  but  failed.  German-like  he  persevered 
and  succeeded  the  next  winter  in  exhibiting  at 
Brunswick,  a  series  of  experiments  which 
demonstrated  that  lighting  could  be  done  with 
a  gas  distilled  from  wood.  Winsor  later  went 
to  London  and  there,  in  1803,  he  began  experi- 
menting with  Lebon's  gas  apparatus.  Winsor 
was  the  first  to  advocate  the  distribution  of  gas 
for  lighting  from  a  central  source  and  proposed 
the  organization  of  a  company  for  "  enlightening 
the  inhabitants  of  London."  His  enthusiasm 
and  extravagant  claims  for  gas  created  great 
opposition  to  his  scheme. 

Even  the  level-headed  Sir  Walter  Scott  was 
dead  set  against  the  idea  and  wrote  to  a  friend, 
"  There  is  a  madman  proposing  to  light  London 
with  —  what  do  you  think  ?    Why,  with  smoke." 

Napoleon,  when  he  heard  of  it,  dismissed  the 
project  d.s  une  grand e  folie  (a  big  humbug).  So 
Winsor  was  ridiculed  everywhere.     Actors  in 


How  a  Madman  Started  First  Gas  Company    31 

public  halls  poked  fun  at  this  tireless  promotor. 
One  humorous  writer  burlesqued  him  thus: 

And  when,  ah  Winsor! — distant  be  the  day — 
Life's  flame  no  longer  shall  ignite  thy  clay; 
Thy  phosphor  nature,  active  still  and  bright^ 
Above   us  shall  diffuse  post-obit  light. 
Perhaps,  translated  to  another  sphere. 
Thy  spirit  —  like  thy  light,  refined  and  clear — 
Ballooned  with  purest  hydrogen,  shall  rise. 
And  add  a  patent  planet  to  the  skies. 
Then  some  sage  Sidophel,  with  Herschel  eye, 
The  bright  Winsorium  Sidus  shall  descry; 
The  Vox  Stellarum  shall  record  thy  name. 
And  thine  outlive  another  Winsor  s  fame. 

Fortunately  Winsor  was  able  to  cope  with  his 
adversaries  both  in  prose  and  poetry.  The  fol- 
lowing poem  shows  his  versatility: 

Must  Britons  be  condemned  forever  to  wallow 
In  filthy  soot,  noxious  smoke,  train  oil,  and  tallow, 
And  their  poisonous  fumes  forever  to  swalloiv? 
For  with  sparky  soots,  snuffs,  and  vapors,  men  have 

constant  strife; 
Those  who  are  not  burned  to  death  are  smothered 

during  life. 

In  the  meantime  Winsor  obtained  the  first 
English  patent  for  gas-making  purposes,  May 
18,  1804.  He  advertised  his  invention  in  pub- 
lic lectures.     He  prophesied  a  universal  use  of 


32  The  Rotnance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

gas  for  lighting,  heating,  power,  and  in  the 
chemical  arts. 

In  May,  1804,  he  gave  a  public  demonstration 
of  gas  lighting  at  the  Lyceum  Theater,  London, 
where,  in  a  series  of  lectures,  he  raised 
£50,000. 

And  so,  in  spite  of  ridicule  and  strong  oppo- 
sition, due  to  superstition  and  the  influence  of 
Murdock  and  doctors,  he  managed  to  raise 
money  and  organize  a  company.  He  laid 
leaden  pipes  in  Pall  Mall,  December,  1806 — 
the  first  gas  mains  laid  in  a  public  street.  On 
January  28,  1807,  one  side  of  Pall  Mall  was 
lighted  with  gas;  in  June  of  the  same  year,  both 
sides.  And  on  July  12,  the  first  meeting  of  gas 
stockholders  was  held  and  the  National  Light 
&  Heat  Company  proposed. 

On  May  5,  1809,  he  applied  to  the  House  of 
Commons  for  a  charter  for  the  company,  but 
was  opposed  by  Murdock  and  Watt.  He  and 
the  stockholders  applied  to  Parliament  in  1810 
for  permission  to  form  the  London  and  West- 
minster Gas  Light  &  Coke  Company,  and  an 
Act  of  Incorporation  was  granted.     In  April, 


Hoiv  a  Madman  Started  First  Gas  Company    33 

1812,  this  company  was  granted  a  Royal  charter. 

Thus  was  formed  the  first  gas  company  in  the 
world. 

Samuel  Clegg,  who  had  been  a  pupil  of  Mur- 
dock  at  Soho  Works,  Birmingham,  applied  him- 
self also  to  gas  apparatus.  He  built  several  gas 
works;  introduced  the  wet  lime  purifier  in 
1809  and  the  hydraulic  main  in  1812;  and  in 
1813  became  engineer  of  the  London  &  West- 
minster Gas  Light  &  Coke  Company.  On  De- 
cember 9,  1815,  he  invented  the  first  gas  meter; 
he  also  obtained  a  patent  for  a  rotary  retort,  and 
a  governor.  In  1816-17  he  constructed  the  first 
cylindrical  gasometer,  or  gas  holder.  In  1816 
he  invented  a  wet  meter  with  revolving  drum. 
This  was  remodeled  and  improved  by  John 
Malam  in  the  following  year. 

There  are  many  other  men  who  contributed 
inventions  and  apparatus  to  the  new  industry, 
but  it  developed  very  slowly  because  people  for 
a  long  time  remained  in  great  dread  of  the  mys- 
terious and  ill-smelling  vapor. 


CHAPTER  V 

''A  LIGHT  HERE,  MAIDS,  HANG  OUT  YOUR  LIGHT  " 

PVith  the  link-boys  running  on  before 

To  light  her  on  her  way, 
A-lounging  in  her  sedan  goes 

Belinda  to  the  play. 
In  patch  and  powder,  puff  and  frill. 

From  satin  shoes  to  hair — 
Of  all  the  maids  in  London  town 

I  wot  there's  none  so  fair. — Arthur  Ketchum. 

WHILE  the  pioneers  of  the  gas  industry 
considered  gas  applicable  to  all  sorts  of 
uses,  those  who  devoted  themselves  exclusively 
to  the  manufacture  of  gas  confined  its  applica- 
tion to  lighting.  This  was  quite  natural,  for 
light  was  at  that  time  the  most  essential  want  of 
the  people. 

Man,  we  are  told,  at  first  lived  in  caves. 
When  he  learned  to  protect  himself  from  ani- 
mals and  from  cold  he  became  more  and  more 
sociable  and  so  the  desire  to  live  together  in 
larger  units  grew.  Gradually  villages,  towns, 
and  cities  were  built,  and  then  the  matter  of 
lighting  at  night  became  a  great  problem. 

34 


*'A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light  "     35 

For  illumination,  first,  pine  knots  were  used ; 
then  oil  lamps  (saucers  with  wicks  dipping  into 
animal  oil)  ;  next,  candles;  and  finally,  gas. 

The  first  artificial  lighting  by  ^' fire  pans"  or 
"censers"  occurred  about  1450  B.  C.  Oil  lamps 
were  first  used  in  500  B.  C. 

The  first  street  lighting  was  done  for  protec- 
tion of  wayfarers  against  the  criminally  inclined. 

In  1416  Sir  Henry  Barton,  Lord  Mayor  of 
London,  ordered  lanthorns  and  lights  to  be  hung 
out  on  winter  evenings  between  All-Hallows 
and  Candlemas.  Although  this  practice  was 
continued  for  three  hundred  years,  it  was  not 
strictly  observed.  One  old  cry  of  the  watchman 
who  reminded  the  people  at  dusk  was  as  follows : 

Lanthorn,  and  a  whole  light! 
Hang  out  your  lights!     Hear! 

In  the  time  of  James  I  (1566-1621)  the  watch- 
man's cry  ran  like  this: 

A  light  here,  maids,  hang  out  your  light. 
And  see  your  horns  be  clear  and  bright. 
That  so  your  candle  may  shine. 
Continuing  from  six  to  nine; 
That  honest  men  that  walk  along 
May  see  to  pass  safe  without  wrong. 


36         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

These  watchmen  used  to  make  the  night  hide- 
ous with  their  cries. 

The  lanthorn  was  an  invention  of  King 
Alfred,  who  lived  between  848  and  900  A.  D. 
It  consisted  of  a  candle  inclosed  by  four  sides 
made  of  transparent  horn.  The  first  English 
primer  you  remember,  was  called  a  hornbook, 
because  the  alphabet,  digits,  and  Lord's  Prayer 
were  protected  by  a  thin  slice  of  horn.  Alfred 
also  invented  a  "clock"  which  consisted  of  a 
candle  that  burned  four  hours. 

Here  are  two  more  cries  of  Old  London: 

Twelve  oclocke 
Looke  well  to  your  locke. 
Your  fier  and  your  light. 
And  so  good-night. 

List  good  people  all! 

Past  ten  o' clock e,  the  houre  I  call. 

Now  say  your  prayers,  and  take  your  rest 

With  conscience  clear  and  sins  confessed. 

I  bid  you  all  good-night! 

Good-night! 

Describing  the  celebration  of  Midsummer 
Eve  in  London  in  1511,  Knight  says  the  age  was 
one  of  general  lawlessness  —  that  thieves  and 
murderers,  one  hundred  strong,  often   attacked 


''A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light  "      37 

the  homes  of  the  wealthy.  A  lone  pedestrian 
had  little  chance  out  on  a  street  at  night,  so 
people  kept  themselves  within  doors. 

At  that  time  lights  were  made  of  pitchy  ropes 
set  in  iron  frames. 

In  1694  a  corporation  was  licensed  to  sup- 
ply glass  lights.  The  age  of  the  flambeaux  came 
in  1738.  Officious  and  villainous  looking  link- 
boys  hung  around  taverns  and  amusement  places 
begging  to  escort  the  pedestrians  home  through 
narrow,  crooked,  and  unpaved  streets.  Their 
torches  burned  oily  rags. 

If  you  want  to  know  the  social  life  of  this 
period,  read  John  Gay's  The  Beggar s  Opera, 
written  in  1728  —  a  satire  on  the  politics  and 
criminal  laws  of  that  day  which,  after  all,  seems 
rather  modern. 

An  Act  of  Parliament  in  1744  ordered  the 
complete  lighting  of  London  —  probably  by  oil. 

In  1762  the  lamplighter  became  a  familiar 
figure.  He  trimmed  the  oil  wicks  of  the  lamps 
in  the  morning,  using  a  ladder. 

Westminster  Bridge  was  lighted  by  gas  for 
the   first   time   on    December   31,    1813.     The 


38  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

populace  was  dumbfounded  and  lamplighters 
refused  to  have  anything  to  do  at  first  with  the 
new  light. 

The  use  of  gas  lights  in  the  streets  of  London 
excited  the  crowds,  who  expected  to  see  the 
buildings  blown  to  atoms  at  any  moment  by  the 
daring  use  of  the  new  illumination. 

Thomas  Rowlandson,  the  English  artist  and 
caricaturist,  then  in  the  height  of  his  powers, 
made  a  caricature  of  these  crowds,  with  the  title 
of  A  Peep  at  the  Gas  Lights  in  Pall  Mall,  for 
Arthur  Ackermann  and  Sons,  art  publishers. 

In  those  days  dealers  in  art  goods  were  the 
recognized  friends  of  the  artist  and  to  them 
flocked  caricaturists,  illustrators,  lithographers, 
engravers,  and  their  patrons.  Here  were  dis- 
cussed the  discoveries  of  the  age. 

Arthur  Ackermann,  the  head  of  the  house, 
was  a  leader  in  the  field  of  applied  science.  He 
was  very  much  interested  in  the  discovery  of 
coal  gas  and  built  an  experimental  plant  to  show 
the  public  what  could  be  done  with  gas. 

In  April,  1814,  the  oil  lamps  in  the  streets  of 
St.  Margaret's  Parish,  Westminster,  were  re- 


''A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light ''     39 

placed  with  gas  lamps.  Even  the  House  of 
Commons  was  gas  lighted,  but  people  were  still 
suspicious,  so  the  piping  was  kept  away  from  the 
wall  and  no  one  dared  to  touch  the  pipes  with 
the  bare  hand. 

At  this  time  it  is  doubtful  which  was  the  more 
startling  innovation,  gas  lighting  or  the  unique 
apparel  of  Beau  Brummel,  who,  then  in  his 
sartorial  glory,  appeared  in  London  society 
wearing  the  new-fangled  breeches  which  fitted 
tightly  to  his  legs  down  to  his  feet  and  buttoned 
at  the  ankle. 

Just  as  the  new  fashion  in  breeches  spread  to 
the  Continent  and  to  America,  so  did  the  new 
method  of  lighting  spread  to  those  countries. 

On  November  9,  1815,  the  Guildhall  was 
lighted.  The  price  of  gas  was  15  shillings 
a  1,000  cubic  feet.  The  gas  meter  had  not  been 
invented,  so  the  charge  was  based  upon  esti- 
mated consumption.  London  had  three  gas 
plants  with  fifteen  miles  of  main.  In  1850  she 
had  thirteen  gas  companies,  and  competition 
was  keen  and  ruinous.  In  1860  these  were  con- 
solidated into  practically  three  companies,  the 


40 


The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 


Gas  Light  &  Coke,   South  Metropolitan,  and 
Commercial  Gas  Companies. 
According  to  E.  S.  Cathels,  there  still  existed 


Main  pipe,  leadim^from  Uie  Gas-light  station,  or^ 
apparatus,  situated  in  Brick  Laiie,neaf  Old  St.  ^  • 


Main  pipe,  leading  from  the  Gas-light  apparatus,  k  % 
or  station,  in  Westminster. 

•  The  gasometer  at  this  place  is  equal  in  capacity  to  22,000  cubic fect% 

t  The  capacity  qf  the  gasometer  here  is  equal  to  15,928  cubic  feet. 

J  At  this  station  the  gasometer  is  equal  in  capacity  to  14,808  cubic/eet. 

Sketch   of  London   1815,  showing   location   of  gas   mains. 
From  Accum's  "  Treatise  on  Gas  Lighting  " 

a  "Reign  of  Terror"  in  1865,  when  even 
men  of  light  and  learning  who  controlled  the 
knowledge  of  science  of  the  Royal  Society,  wrote 


''A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light ''     41 

in  a  ^'vulgar  frenzy"  as  to  the  dangers  of  gas, 
gas  making,  and  gas  distribution.  Gas  holders 
were  incased  in  buildings,  but  it  was  only  a  short 
period  of  stage  fright,  not  by  the  actors,  but  by 
the  lookers-on. 

Paris  was  first  lighted  in  the  year  1524.  In 
1558  the  inhabitants  were  ordered  to  hang  out 
lighted  candle  lanterns  in  front  of  their  houses, 
and  this  action  gives  Paris  the  credit  of  being 
probably  the  first  modern  city  to  attempt  civic 
street  lighting. 

In  1662  an  Italian  abbe  obtained  the  exclusive 
right  to  let  out  torches  and  lanterns  for  hire 
from  booths,  where  linkmen  and  boys  waited  to 
attend  carriages  or  foot  passengers.  They  were 
paid  by  time  and  carried  an  hour  glass  to  avoid 
disputes  in  charges. 

In  1766  pitch  or  resin  bowls  were  substituted 
for  the  candle  lantern,  and  reflecting  lamps  were 
suspended  over  the  middle  of  the  road. 

In  1820  Paris  was  lighted  by  gas.  A  French 
author  of  that  day  wrote  thus  of  this  event: 
"Where  gas  light  exists,  there  is  no  night;  where 
gas  light  is,  there  is  continuous  day." 


42  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

In  1803,  Main  Street,  in  Richmond,  Virginia, 
was  brilliantly  lighted  by  a  huge  gas  lamp 
erected  on  a  forty-foot  tower. 

An  inventor  named  Benjamin  Henfrey  had 
come  to  Richmond  the  winter  before  and  held 
an  exhibition  of  his  new  invention,  *'  Inflam- 
mable air,"  at  Hay  Market  Garden.  Admis- 
sion was  fifty  cents  and  thousands  of  persons 
witnessed  the  wonderful  sight. 

The  "new  light"  w^as  made  in  a  tea-kettle 
from  wood  and  pit  coal. 

In  order  to  satisfy  the  people  that  the  demon- 
stration was  not  a  fraud,  a  committee  of  six 
prominent  citizens,  including  the  mayor,  was 
requested  to  see  the  experiments  of  lighting  and 
cooking.  Its  report  was  convincing  and  a  sub- 
scription started  to  build  an  octagon  light  tower 
vs^hich  was  erected  within  a  few  months. 

The  large  lantern,  forty  feet  above  the  ground, 
was  supplied  with  gas  generated  in  a  still  in  the 
cellar.  It  was  successful  at  first,  but  did  not 
last  long,  and  Main  Street  went  back  to  the  ani- 
mal oil  lamps. 

While  Murdock,   Winsor,    and    Clegg  were 


''A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light  "     43 

working  out  the  manufacture  of  coal  gas  in 
England,  David  Melville,  in  1812,  lighted  his 
house  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  with  gas;  also  a  factory 
at  Pawtucket.  Melville  induced  the  govern- 
ment to  give  gas  lighting  a  trial  and  it  w^as 
adopted  and  used  with  great  success  for  one  year 
at  Beaver  Tail  Lighthouse. 

Newport,  therefore,  has  a  claim  to  being  a 
pioneer  in  gas  lighting  in  this  country. 

In  the  Annals  of  Philadelphia,  Watson  relates 
that:  The  first  gas  made  in  Philadelphia  was 
manufactured  by  Michael  Ambroise  and  Com- 
pany, Italian  fireworkers  and  artists,  in  August, 
1796,  in  an  exhibition.  They  first  used  it  as  an 
illuminant  in  April,  1812. 

On  December  28,  1815,  gas  lighting  was  first 
proposed  for  Philadelphia  by  James  McMurtie. 
In  1830  she  drew  up  "A  Public  Remonstrance 
against  Lighting  with  Gas.''  That  was  when 
Philadelphia  used  candles,  lanterns,  whale  oil 
lamps  and,  later,  kerosene  lamps.  Gas  was  not 
adopted  until  the  year  1836,  when  the  Philadel- 
phia Gas  Company  began  to  operate  as  a  public 
utility  on  February  8. 


44  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

On  June  13,  1816,  there  appeared  in  the  Bal- 
timore newspapers  the  sensational  announce- 
ment of  an  exhibition  of : 

"Gas  Light  without  Oil,  Tallow,  Wick  or 
Smoke"  to  be  given  in  the  Museum  and  Gallery 
of  the  Fine  Arts  in  Holliday  Street,  established 
by  Rembrandt  Peale  in  1813."  A  small  admis- 
sion fee  was  asked  for  the  privilege  of  seeing  the 
new  lights. 

Peale  had  built  the  museum  to  exhibit  a 
skeleton  of  a  mastodon  which  his  father,  Charles 
Wilson  Peale,  the  portrait  painter,  had  exca- 
vated at  Newburg  on  the  Hudson. 

The  new  lights,  it  is  said,  attracted  more  atten- 
tion than  the  skeleton,  which  was  supposed  to  be 
10,000  years  old. 

In  fact,  the  exhibition  was  so  successful  that 
on  June  17,  1816,  an  ordinance  was  passed  per- 
mitting Peale  and  others  to  manufacture  gas, 
lay  pipes  in  the  streets,  and  to  contract  with  the 
city  for  street  lighting.  This  was  the  first  gas 
company  founded  in  the  United  States.  On 
February  5,  1817,  it  was  incorporated  as  the  Gas 
Light  Company  of  Baltimore. 


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Rembrandt    Peale,    Who    Or-        Robert  Wilhelm  von   Bunsen. 
ganized    the    First    Gas  Inventor  of  the  Gas  Burner 

Company 


Carl  Auer  von  Welsbach.   In-       Professor     Thaddeus      S.     C. 
ventor  of  the  Gas  Mantle  Lowe.      Inventor     of      Carbu- 

reted Water  Gas  Apparatus 


''A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light ''     45 

Boston  had  gas  in  1822,  but  the  suburbs  were 
slow  to  adopt  it.  Not  until  1853  was  a  gas  com- 
pany formed  in  Cambridge,  when  Gardiner 
Hubbard  secured  gas  for  the  university.  This 
is  the  Hubbard  to  whom  must  be  given  much  of 
the  credit  for  bringing  Bell's  telephone  before 
the  public  twenty-five  years  later. 

In  New  York  City  the  first  house  lighted  by 
gas  was  No.  7  Cherry  Street.  This  was  the 
home  of  Samuel  Leggett.  The  people  stood  in 
the  street  gazing  in  awe  and  fear  upon  the  new 
illumination. 

An  editorial  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post, 
April  24,  1824,  reads  as  follows: 

The  exhibition  of  gas  lights  last  evening  at  286  Walter 
Street,  attracted  a  great  number  of  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
notwithstanding  the  unfavorable  weather  ....  Six  new 
burners  ....  rendered  the  display  considerably  more  bril- 
liant than  the  preceding  occasion. 

In  the  American  Gas  Light  Journal  of  De- 
cember 1,  1859,  there  appears  the  following 
anecdotes: 

A  Pennsylvania  gas  engineer  told  us  a  good  story  of  a 
Dutchman  from  the  interior  coming  to  the  gas  office  to  get 
a  demijohn  of  gas,  he  and  his  frau  vas  going  to  haf  a  partee 


46  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

mit  some  neighbors,  and  dey  vant  to  see  tee  gas,  and  he  had 
promised  to  his  frau  to  light  tee  lamps  mit  gas,  und  he  had 
brought  a  demijohn  to  fetch  him  home. 

No  persuasion  would  convince  him  that  gas  was  not  trans- 
ferable in  such  vessels.  He  had  traveled  ten  miles  fur  him, 
and  de  volks  would  whale  him  if  he  gave  dem  no  gas  mit 
deir  supper. 

At  length  the  engineer  consented,  and  filling  the  demijohn 
with  ammoniacal  water  sent  the  Dutchman  home  in  high 
glee.  What  astonished  him  most  was  that  there  was  nothing 
to  pay.  He  probably  found  "something  to  pay"  when  his 
friends  were  assembled  to  see  him  light  his  lamps  mit  tee 
gas. 

The  London  Monthly  for  October,  1814,  how- 
ever, tells  about 

Butts  of  Gas  for  Export :  A  new  establishment  has  opened 
at  Worship  Street  in  addition  to  one  in  City  Road,  both 
manufacturing  gas  preserved  in  butts  like  beer  and  sent  any 
distance.  Hundreds  of  butts  and  larger  reservoirs  were 
filled  during  summer  and  stored  for  winter.  One  mile  of 
public  streets  and  houses  of  Parliament  lighted  with  com- 
pressed gas. 

In  an  early  issue  of  the  American  Gas  Light 
Journal  we  find  the  following  interesting  infor- 
mation from  correspondents: 

A  lady  resident,  within  the  lamp  and  watch  district  of 
New  York  City,  steadily  refuses  to  have  the  Manhattan  gas 
inserted  into  her  house,  because,  she  says,  it  is  the  breath  of 
the  devil. 

The  night  express  on  the  New  Haven  Railroad  has  two 
gas  burners  on  each  car.  Containers  were  filled  with  gas 
in  the  same  way  that  an  engine  takes  on  water. 


''A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light ''     47 

One  correspondent  wrote:  "Why  are  not  carriage 
lamps  lit  with  gas?  A  meter  could  be  placed  under  the 
driver's  seat  to  contain  a  month's  supply  for  private  car- 
riages, and  a  week's  for  hacks.  It  would  be  a  vast  im- 
provement over  candles  and  oil." 

Steamboats  also  are  lighted  with  gas. 

A  tabulation  for  1860  showed  381  companies 
capitalized  at  $47,911,215.  Coal  gas  was  pro- 
duced by  346  companies  and  rosin  gas  by  35. 
The  price  of  coal  gas  ran  from  $3.43  in  Massa- 
chusetts to  $10.05  in  California.  The  District 
of  Columbia  paid  $3.25.  Rosin  gas  ran  from 
$5.93  in  North  Carolina  to  $7.00  in  Maine, 
Ohio,  Rhode  Island,  and  Virginia. 

The  same  authority  credits  the  following 
cities  as  being  the  first  in  their  respective  states 
to  have  gas  companies: 

1817,  Baltimore,  Md. 

1822,  Boston,  Mass. 

1823,  New  York  City,  N.  Y. 
1833,  Evansville,  Ind. 

1835,  New  Orleans,  La. 

1836,  Monroe,  Mich. 

1838,  Louisville,  Ky. 

1839,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

1841,  Cincinnati  and  Philadelphia. 

1846,  Newark,  N.  J.,  and  Charleston,  S.  C, 

1847,  New  Haven,  Conn. 


48  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

1848,  Providence,  R.  I. 

1849,  Chicago,  111.,  Great  Falls,  N.  H.,  Port- 

land, Me.,  and  Savannah,  Ga. 

1850,  Wheeling,   W.    Va.,    and    Nashville, 

Tenn. 

1852,  Montgomery,  Ala.,  Milwaukee,  Wis., 

Montpelier,  Vt.,San  Francisco,  Cal., 
and  Wilmington,  Del. 

1853,  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  and  Wilmington,  N. 

C. 

1854,  Dubuque,  Iowa. 

1855,  Washington,  D.  C. 

1857,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

1858,  Galveston,  Texas. 

1859,  Leavenworth,     Kans.,    and    Portland, 

Oregon. 

In  1850  the  following  cities  in  New  York 
State  were  listed  as  having  gas  companies:  New 
York  City,  1823;  Brooklyn,  1825;  Manhattan, 
1830;  Buffalo,  Rochester,  Syracuse,  and  Troy, 
1848;  Auburn,  Poughkeepsie,  and  Williams- 
burg, 1850. 

Illinois  cities  having  gas  in  1855  were: 
Chicago,  1850;  Quincy,  Rock  Island,  and 
Springfield,  1854;  Galena,  Ottawa,  and  Peoria, 
1855. 


''A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light  "      49 

The  following  account  on  the  introduction  of 
gas  service  in  Chicago  is  given  in  Kirkland's 
History  of  Chicago: 

Among  the  elements  essential  to  the  health  and  comfort 
of  inhabitants  of  any  city  are  light  and  pure  water,  the 
former  of  which  has  been  more  easily  obtainable  than  the 
latter,  although  Lake  Michigan  washes  the  shores  of  the 
city. 

In  1849  an  act  was  passed  by  the  legislature  authorizing 
the  formation  of  the  Chicago  Gas  Light  &  Coke  Company. 

The  work  of  laying  mains  and  constructing  the  necessary 
buildings  was  completed  in  1850  and  the  city  was  lighted 
with  gas  in  September  in  that  year. 

This  event  formed  an  epoch  in  Chicago's  history.  The 
filling  of  the  pipes  with  the  lighting  fluid  and  the  bursting 
forth  of  the  brilliant  flames  when  a  match  was  applied, 
illuminating  with  a  new  and  beautiful  light  stores  and 
streets  and  buildings,  were  watched  with  intense  interest 
and  delight  by  an  admiring  crowd  of  citizens. 

The  works  were  situated  on  the  south  side  of  Monroe 
Street  near  Market. 

The  cost  of  lighting  the  city  lamps  was  fixed  at  $15  a  post. 
By  1855  nearly  78  miles  of  service  pipe  had  been  laid  and 
there  were  almost  2,000  consumers  of  gas. 

In  the  year  1916  a  section  of  a  wooden  gas 
pipe  was  dug  up  by  laborers  excavating  for  the 
new  Canal  Street  sewer  opposite  the  North- 
western Railroad  Station.  It  was  presented  to 
the  Chicago  Historical  Society.  It  was  a  part 
of  a  special  main  laid  from  the  original  gas 
works  at  Monroe  and  Market  streets,  to  the  first 


50  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

station  of  the  old  Galena  and  Chicago  Union 
Railroad,  located  at  Canal  and  Kinzie  streets. 
The  main  was  laid  in  1850  at  a  great  expense. 
Its  three-inch  bore  furnished  gas  to  light  the 
station  and  seven  street  lamp  posts. 

In  1854  Governor  John  Reynolds  published 
in  Belleville  a  book,  Sketches  of  the  Country,  in 
which  he  stated: 

Gas  is  used  in  this  city  to  a  great  extent,  and  a  company 
is  organized  with  a  capital  of  $207,400  to  furnish  it.  This 
is  another  evidence  that  the  people  of  Chicago  prefer  light  to 
darkness.  Five  miles  and  2,978  feet  of  large  gas-pipes  have 
been  laid  under  ground  in  this  city  the  last  year,  and  the 
total  of  the  smaller  pipes  laid  throughout  the  city  is  thirteen 
miles  and  638  feet. 

In  Andreas'  History  of  Chicago  we  find  the 
following  interesting  account  of  the  first  use  of 
gas  in  Chicago. 

The  early  history  of  the  gas  company  and  the 
lighting  of  the  city  by  that  method  is  as  follows : 
An  Act  was  approved  February  12,  1849, 
authorizing  the  formation  of  the  Chicago  Gas 
Light  &  Coke  Company,  with  H.  L.  Stewart, 
W.  S.  Bennett,  F.  C.  Sherman,  P.  L.  Updike, 
and    P.    Page    as    incorporators.      Under    its 


''A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light  "      51 

charter,  the  company  was  given  the  exclusive 
right  to  supply  the  city  with  gas  for  ten  years. 
In  October  the  work  was  begun  of  laying  the 
mains,  erecting  works,  and  getting  the  whole 
system  into  operation.  The  contract  for  this 
was  let  to  George  F.  Lee,  of  Philadelphia,  and 
the  work  was  completed  in  August,  1850.  The 
city  was  lighted  with  gas  for  the  first  time 
Wednesday  afternoon,  September  4,  1850.  From 
the  Gem  of  the  Prairie,  bearing  date  of  the 
seventh  of  that  month,  the  following  interesting 
account  is  taken: 


The  Gas  Alight !  Wednesday  marked  an  era  in  Chicago. 
At  about  2  o'clock  p.  m.  the  gas  pipes  were  filled,  and  the 
humming  noise  made  by  the  escaping  gas,  at  the  tops  of  the 
lamp-posts,  indicated  that  everything  was  all  right.  Shortly 
afterward  the  fire  was  appHed  and  brilliant  torches  flamed 
on  both  sides  of  Lake  Street  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  and 
wherever  the  posts  were  set.  The  lanterns  not  having  been 
afiixed  to  the  posts,  the  bright,  gaseous  flame  eddied  and 
flickered  in  the  wind,  sometimes  apparently  disappearing,  but 
anon  shooting  up  as  brightly  as  ever.  The  burners  in.  Reed 
&  Co.'s  and  in  Keen's  were  lighted  about  the  same  time, 
presenting  a  steady  golden  fiame.  We  believe  these  estab- 
lishments had  the  honor  of  first  lighting  up  with  gas ;  others 
will  not  be  m.uch  behind  them.  In  the  evening  the  lamps 
were  again  lighted,  and  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
Chicago  several  of  the  streets  were  illuminated  in  regular 
city  style.  Hereafter  she  will  not  hide  her  light  under  a 
bushel. 


52  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Of  the  initial  illumination  the  Chicago  Jour- 
nal also  said: 

Some  of  the  stores  on  Lake  Street,  particularly  those 
devoted  to  California  ware,  made  a  brilliant  appearance,  and 
the  gas  lent  an  additional  glory  to  refined  gold.  But  the 
City  Hall,  with  its  thirty-six  burners,  is  the  lightest  of  all, 
night  being  transformed  into  mimic  day. 

In  1849  the  population  of  Chicago  was  23,047. 
The  larger  part  of  the  population  lived  north  of 
the  present  mouth  of  the  Chicago  River.  The 
portions  between  Wabash  Avenue  and  Adams 
and  Jackson  streets  were  regarded  as  out  of 
town  where  wolves  prowled  about.  Residents 
pastured  their  cows  there  and  a  few  lived  there 
in  true  country  fashion.  There  were  no  sewers, 
paved  streets,  sidewalks,  omnibuses,  nor  rail- 
roads. The  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  how- 
ever, was  in  operation.  The  first  boat  had 
arrived  at  Chicago  from  La  Salle  on  April  23, 
1848. 

The  development  of  gas  lighting  is  chiefly 
due  to  Robert  Wilhelm  von  Bunsen  and  his 
eminent  pupil,  Carl  Auer  von  Welsbach. 
These  two  men  made  possible  the  utilization  of 
gas  for  lighting  and  heating  purposes. 


''A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light  "     53 

Bunsen,  an  eminent  German  chemist,  in- 
vented in  1855  the  blue  flame  gas  burner  with 
which  we  are  all  familiar.  This  burner  made 
it  possible  to  burn  coal  gas  economically  with  an 
intensely  hot  but  smokeless  flame. 

All  early  burners  were  upright.  Practically 
no  improvement  in  the  Bunsen  straight  tube 
burner  was  made  until  the  ^'Kinetic  burner" 
was  developed.  In  this  type  the  gas  carried 
along  about  four  times  its  volume  of  primary 
air,  making  possible  almost  perfect  combustion 
and  a  more  attractive  burner  design. 

The  '^  lime-light "  was  developed  this  time. 
A  piece  of  lime  placed  in  an  oxy-hydrogen  flame 
became  heated  to  a  brilliant  incandescence 
which  was  suitable  for  stage  lighting  and  pro- 
jection work. 

Gillard,  a  Frenchman,  made  a  gas  mantle  of 
fine  platinum  wire,  but  its  light  was  of  too  low 
candle  power.  In  1881,  Lungren,  an  American, 
molded  a  mantle  of  magnesia,  lime,  and  zirconia 
for  which  the  Franklin  Institute  awarded  him 
a  medal. 

Among  the  scholars  who  came  from  all  parts 


54 The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

of  the  world  to  study  under  Bunsen  at  Heidel- 
berg was  Carl  Auer.  While  experimenting  in 
Bunsen's  laboratory,  Auer  discovered  accident- 
ally that  certain  rare  earths  glowed  brightly 
when  introduced  in  the  flame  of  a  gas  burner. 
This  led  him  to  apply  oxides  of  cerium  and  thor- 
ium to  a  cotton  webbing,  and  thus  the  gas  mantle 
was  invented.  For  this  accomplishment  he  was 
given  the  title  of  '^  von  Welsbach." 

The  mantle  produced  a  much  better  light 
than  the  flat  flame  or  slip  tip  burner.  It  gave 
six  times  more  light  and  used  less  gas. 

The  open  flame  burner  required  a  gas  rich  in 
illuminating  qualities.  The  mantle  burned  a 
leaner  gas  and  made  it  unnecessary  to  keep  up 
two  standards  of  heating  and  candle  power. 

It  took  a  long  time,  however,  for  people  to 
adopt  the  gas  mantle.  They  did  not  understand 
that  to  persist  in  burning  a  high  candle  power 
gas  was  just  as  wasteful  and  expensive  as  to 
insist  on  using  cream  and  eggs  in  preparing  food 
when  milk  and  some  other  ingredient  would 
make  just  as  palatable  a  dish.  The  slight  cost 
of  a  mantle  kept  them  from  getting  a  better  light 


''A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light ''    55 

with  a  lower  gas  consumption.  Complaints  on 
the  amount  of  the  monthly  gas  bill  have  been 
due  largely  to  the  use  of  obsolete  or  inefficient 
gas  burning  appliances.  Carelessness  has  also 
been  the  cause  of  large  bills.  Jules  Verne's  hero 
in  Around  the  World  in  Eighty  Days  had  a  big 
gas  bill  to  pay  because  he  forgot  to  turn  the  gas 
light  off  in  the  bathroom. 

The  incandescent  gas  mantle  was,  there- 
fore, not  used  to  any  great  extent  until  1890. 
The  inverted  gas  mantles  were  introduced  in 
1900. 

The  Welsbach  mantle  was  applied  to  street 
lighting  in  1896.  Street  lighting  by  gas  has,  un- 
fortunately, always  been  placed  at  a  great 
disadvantage  in  the  United  States  because  of  the 
reluctance  of  communities  to  replace  the  open 
flame  burner  with  gas  mantles. 

In  Europe,  however,  where  economy  is  the 
watchword  everywhere,  gas  lighting  was  exten- 
sively used.  Inverted  gas  mantles,  high  pressure 
gas  and  several  systems  of  automatic  and 
distance  lighting  and  extinguishing  made  gas  a 
formidable  rival  of  electricity. 


56  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

On  seeing  Paris  lighted  by  electricity  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  wrote  in  his  Virginibus  Puer- 
isque,  a  remarkable  literary  appreciation  of  gas 
lighting,  entitled  "A  Plea  for  Gas  Lamps.'^ 
This  closes : 

A  new  sort  of  urban  star  now  shines  out  nightly,  horrible, 
unearthly,  obnoxious  to  the  human  eye;  a  lamp  for  a  night- 
mare! Such  a  light  as  this  should  shine  forth  only  on 
murders  and  public  crimes,  or  along  the  corridors  of 
lunatic  asylums,  a  horror  to  heighten  horror.  To  look  at  it 
only  once  is  to  fall  in  love  with  gas,  which  gives  a  warm 
domestic  radiance  fit  to  eat  by.  That  ugly  blinding  glare 
may  not  improperly  advertise  the  home  of  slanderous  Figaro, 
which  is  a  back-shop  to  the  infernal  regions;  but  where  soft 
joys  prevail,  where  people  are  convoked  to  pleasure  and  the 
philosopher  looks  on,  smiling  and  silent,  where  love  and 
laughter  and  deifying  wine  abound,  there,  at  least,  let  the  old 
mild  lustre  shine  upon  the  eyes  of  man. 

Gas  lighting  has  always  had  to  fight  hard 
against  competitive  illuminants.  The  reason  for 
this  has  best  been  stated  by  Messrs.  Goddard 
and  Mitchell  before  the  Eastern  Counties  Gas 
Managers  Association  (England)  in  1889: 

Supplying  gas  of  a  quality  above  that  for  which  the  con- 
sumers'  burners   were  adapted   has   done   gas   companies   a 

great  deal  of  harm When  people  burned  other  kinds 

of  illuminants,  they  were  satisfied  with  a  much  smaller 
quantity  of  light.  They  said :  "  How  hot  your  gas  makes 
the  room !  "     And  why  ?     Because  they  were  using  ten  to 


^'A  Light  Here,  Maids,  Hang  Out  Light  "     57 

tw^elve  times  more  light  than  if  they  burned  candles  or  oil; 
and  the  result  was  great  heat. 

Th's  condition  held  true  in  competing  with 
electric  lighting.  Gas  units  gave  a  greater  vol- 
ume of  light  than  electric  units  and,  of  course, 
more  heat.  But  when  units  are  comparable 
there  is  practically  no  difference  in  heat.  Doctor 
Rideal  brought  this  fact  out  in  his  famous  series 
of  experiments  on  the  comparative  value  of  gas 
and  electricity  for  lighting.  The  Welsbach 
Company  has  made  a  brief  summary  of  this  re- 
port in  a  pamphlet,  Hygienic  Value  of  Gas 
Lighting. 

The  statement  that  "  gas  burns  up  the  oxygen 
in  the  air  "  has  also  done  a  great  deal  of  harm 
to  the  industry.  Even  doctors  believe  this.  But, 
it  is  only  a  half  truth  and  that  is  why  it  has  been 
so  injurious.  Gas  does  burn  oxygen,  but  there 
is  always  plenty  of  oxygen  left  in  the  room  be- 
cause no  room  is  air-tight.  The  earth's  atmos- 
phere contains  about  twenty  per  cent  of  oxygen 
and  this  proportion  is  maintained  within  eleven 
miles  of  the  ground.  So,  if  gas  is  being  burned, 
more  air  and  oxygen  is  constantly  rushing  in 


58  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

through  pores  and  crevices  to  fill  the  vacuum. 
Nature,  you  know,  abhors  a  vacuum. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  gas  is  really  a  good  scav- 
enger in  that  it  burns  up  the  impurities  in  the 
air.  If  any  personal  discomfort  is  experienced 
w^here  gas  is  used,  it  is  generally  caused  by  car- 
bon monoxide  which  is  the  result  of  incomplete 
combustion  of  the  gas  due  to  improperly  regu- 
lated or  designed  burners. 

When  a  rich  gas  is  imperfectly  burned,  car- 
bon is  formed,  some  of  which  escapes  into  the 
air  and  blackens  ceilings.  Gas,  however,  is  not 
the  only  cause  of  blackened  ceilings.  Any  cur- 
rent of  air  from  a  heated  stove,  or  radiator  will 
carry  along  the  dust  in  the  air  and  deposit  it  on 
ceiling  or  wall. 


CHAPTER  VI 

HOW   SUNSHINE   IS   RELEASED  FOR  THE   USE  OF 

MAN 

/  remember^  oh  yes,  I  remember 

When  light  was  beginning  to  daivn. 

How  I  floated  about  in  the  ether  — 
A  poor  little  atom  forlorn 

And  went  through  the  chaos  and  darkness. 

— Author  Unknown. 

ACCORDING  to  geologists,  learned  persons 
who  have  made  a  study  of  the  earth, 
millions  of  years  ago,  when  our  forefathers  still 
lived  in  caves  and  trees  and  were  having  a 
strenuous  struggle  to  keep  alive,  a  mineral  was 
formed,  without  which  we  too  would  be  having 
a  very  difficult  time.  In  this  particular  age  a 
large  part  of  Mother  Earth  was  covered  with 
immense  forests  —  very  high  and  thick — more 
luxuriant  than  the  densest  jungles  of  our  tropics 
today.  Man  was  still  uncivilized,  in  fact,  was 
as  savage  as  the  beasts  that  inhabited  this  jungle 
world.    There  were  in  those  days  real  dragons 

59 


60  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

and  monsters  —  and  their  names  are  mammoth 
too,  ichthyosauria,  dinosauria,  etc.  Some  flew, 
some  crawled,  some  ran,  and  some  swam.  These 
lived  and  fought  in  the  luxurious  vegetation  on 
land  and  in  water. 

Brute  force  ruled  and  the  strongest  survived. 
Man,  with  brain  not  yet  developed,  had  an 
uphill  fight  to  survive  against  the  strength,  the 
claws,  and  the  teeth  of  savage  beasts. 

Now  there  is  in  the  leaves  of  ferns,  plants,  and 
trees  a  mysterious  substance  called  chlorophyll. 
It  gives  the  green  color  to  the  foliage  in  the 
same  way  that  the  haemoglobin  in  the  red-cor- 
puscle gives  the  red  color  to  the  blood.  Both 
chlorophyll  and  haemoglobin  perform  some 
chemical  miracle,  and  are  essential  to  the  life 
of  the  plant  or  the  animal. 

Maple  sugar,  you  know,  is  really  made  in  the 
leaves  of  the  maple  tree.  Now  in  some  wonder- 
ful way  the  chlorophyll  uses  the  light  of  the 
sun  to  form  carbohydrates,  and  thus  each  leaf 
stores  away  a  little  bit  of  the  radiant  energy  re- 
ceived from  the  sun.  Astronomers  say  that  this 
energy  amounts  to  about  5,000  horse-power  an 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man     61 

acre  at  the  earth's  surface  at  noon  time.  That 
is  quite  a  large  amount  of  heat  to  receive  for 
nothing,  but  then  the  sun  is  just  one  giant  heat 
engine  that  has  been  working  for  a  billion, 
yes,  maybe  a  hundred  billion  years.  Its  tem- 
perature has  been  estimated  at  5,000  to  8,000 
degrees  Centigrade.  Every  square  yard  of  its 
surface  emits  12,500  to  75,000  horse-power.  The 
energy  produced  by  three  square  feet  of  Old 
Sol's  surface  is  equalled  by  few  of  our  largest 
electric  power  plants.  To  produce  three  square 
feet  of  the  sun's  energy  would  require  the  burn- 
ing of  a  layer  of  coal  twenty  feet  thick  every 
hour.  The  sun  is  continually  sending  forth  out 
into  space  about  half  a  trillion  horse-power  of 
energy.  Most  of  this  is  wasted.  Our  earth 
intercepts  about  one  two-billionth  of  it.  The 
energy  falling  on  an  average  sized  roof,  if  util- 
ized, is  thought  to  be  sufficient  to  light  a  modern 
city.  According  to  a  prominent  chemist,  the 
Sahara  Desert  receives  daily  a  solar  energy 
equivalent  to  six  million  tons  of  coal. 

While  ferns,  plants,  and  trees  in  jungles  were 
absorbing    the    radiant    energy    from    the    sun 


62  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

certain  changes  were  slowly  taking  place  during 
these  millions  of  years.  Like  all  youngsters,  our 
Mother  Earth  was  beset  with  frequent  spells  of 
convulsions,  fevers,  etc.  Her  face  was  all 
broken  out  in  spots.  The  luxurious  vegetation, 
which  died,  underwent  partial  decay,  and  be- 
came covered  by  upper  growths  of  vegetation, 
was  buried  under  millions  of  tons  of  heavy  rock 
—  thousands  of  feet  below  the  earth's  surface. 
This  imponderable  mass  exerted  an  immeasur- 
able pressure  upon  the  buried  vegetation.  The 
long  ages  of  resulting  heat  and  chemical  action 
gradually  changed  these  dense  green  forests  into 
the  compact  black  mass,  now  known  as  coal. 
The  coal  mines  of  Illinois  and  of  Pennsylvania 
were  therefore  on  a  trackless  jungle.  Just 
how  long  it  took  nature  to  build  these  mines 
is  uncertain.  But  a  beech  forest  one  hundred 
years  old  is  thought  to  supply  enough  material 
for  a  coal  vein  only  three-fourths  (^)  of  an 
inch  thick.  Many  veins  range  from  twenty  to 
thirty  feet  thick,  and  veins  two  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  thick  have  been  mentioned. 

A  tallow  candle  makes  its  own  gas  as  it  burns 


Primeval   Forest   Whose    Luxuriant   Vegetation   Absorbed 
Radiant  Energv  and  Was  Converted  into  Coal 


Undercutting    a    Breast    of    Coal    with    a    Compressed    Air 
Puncher 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      63 

and  is,  therefore,  really  a  small  gas  factory. 
While  it  burns  its  own  gas  completely  it  is  more 
convenient  and  economical  to  have  gas  manu- 
factured on  a  large  scale  and  delivered  in  pipes, 
whenever  and  wherever  it  is  needed.  Since 
we  have  learned  that  the  sun  is  the  source  of  all 
energy — light  and  heat — and  know  how  this 
energy  w^as  stored  up  in  coal,  we  are  now  ready 
to  learn  how  this  energy  is  released  and  con- 
verted into  a  fluid  form,  gas,  for  the  use  of  man. 

We  have  learned  that  gas  exists  in  the  earth. 
But  since  it  occurs  only  in  certain  sections  of  the 
country  it  has  to  be  piped  long  distances  to  sec- 
tions that  do  not  have  natural  gas,  which  in- 
creases the  expense  of  distribution.  Further- 
more, these  natural  gas  regions  are  gradually 
being  exhausted  and  have  to  be  supplied  from 
other  fields.  The  gas  fields  of  Pennsylvania  are 
rapidly  becoming  depleted  and  a  pipe  line  run- 
ning all  the  way  from  Texas  carries  natural  gas 
from  that  region  to  Pennsylvania  just  as  pipe 
lines  carry  oil  from  Oklahoma  regions  to 
Whiting,  Indiana. 

So  in  order  to  supply  people  with  a  clean  fuel 


64  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

in  convenient  form,  gas  has  often  to  be  manu- 
factured. Manufactured  gas  is  made  either 
from  coal  or  oil  and  these,  we  have  seen,  might 
really  be  called  solidified  or  liquefied  sunshine. 
There  are  three  chief  kinds  of  gases  made  from 
coal  and  oil: 

1.  Coal  gas  from  coal. 

2.  Carbureted  water  gas  from  coke  and  oil. 

3.  Oil  gas  from  oil  alone. 

We  have  seen  how  the  coal  gas  process  was 
discovered  in  England.  It  was  quite  natural 
that  gas  should  be  made  from  coal  because  it  was 
very  plentiful.  The  cost  of  transportation  was 
low,  and  oil  scarce.  However,  processes  for 
making  oil  gas  were  considered.  Between  1815- 
1823  several  companies  had  been  formed  but 
these  failed. 

In  1819  David  Gordon  obtained  a  "patent  for 
making  vessels  of  great  strength''  which  led  to 
the  formation  of  "The  London  Portable  Gas 
Company."    This  project  also  failed. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Murdock  had  also 
tried  to  make  gas  portable.  In  one  of  his  de- 
scriptions he  says: 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      65 

Bags  of  leather  and  of  varnished  silk,  bladders  and  vessels 
of  tinned  iron  were  filled  with  the  gas,  which  was  set  fire 
to  and  carried  about  from  room  to  room  with  a  view  of 
ascertaining  how  far  it  could  be  made  to  answer  the  purpose 
of  a  movable  or  transferable  light. 

You  will  remember  that  Murdock  was  ridi- 
culed for  wearing  a  wooden  hat  and  carrying  a 
gas  lantern  made  of  a  bladder. 


Experimental  Gas  Container  of  1780 

When  the  gas  industry  was  started  in  the 
United  States  it  naturally  copied  the  process 
used  in  Europe.  Good  gas  coal  was  not  always 
readily  accessible.  Natural  gas  and  petroleum 
were  keen  competitors,  so  a  cheaper  process  than 
coal  gas  was  desirable  and  later  developed.    The 


66  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

fundamental  discovery  which  led  to  the  intro- 
duction of  coal  gas  for  city  and  home  use  has 
been  described. 

All  coal  gas  is  produced  by  heating  bitu- 
minous (*^soft")  coal  in  closed  vessels,  called 
retorts  or  ovens,  to  a  temperature  which  will 
cause  the  coal  to  decompose. 

Not  all  bituminous  coals  are  satisfactory. 
*^  Gas  Coal  "  must  possess  about  one-third  vola- 
tile matter  (the  part  that  is  driven  off  to  pro- 
duce the  gas),  a  low  per  cent  of  ash,  less  than 
one  per  cent  of  sulphur  (because  of  trouble  in 
removing  the  sulphur  later)  and  in  addition 
must  produce  a  salable  residue  called  coke. 

Retorts  in  which  the  coal  is  heated  (that  is, 
subjected  to  destructive  distillation)  are  of  rath- 
er varied  design,  but  the  principle  of  operation 
is  the  same  for  all.  Coal  is  fed  in  at  the  top 
and  travels  slowly  toward  the  bottom.  In  the 
first  foot  or  two  little  change  occurs  in  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  coal,  but  during  travel,  the  coal 
nearest  the  wall  becomes  pasty  and  swells  and 
some  gas  begins  to  come  off  and  pass  out  at  the 
top  through  the  "  Hydraulic  main." 


Hoiv  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man     67 

As  the  coal  travels  farther  down  the  retort, 
more  and  more  of  it  becomes  pasty  and  more 
gas  is  produced.  By  the  time  the  coal  has  trav- 
eled half  vs^ay  down  the  retort,  it  has  all  softened 
and  some  of  it  is  beginning  to  ^'  coke,"  that  is, 
become  dry  and  hard  because  the  volatile  or  gas- 
eous matter  is  nearly  all  gone.  When  the  coal 
has  reached  the  bottom  of  the  retort,  practically 
all  the  gas  has  been  driven  off  by  the  heat  and 
there  remains  the  porous  brittle  coke  composed 
of  the  ''  fixed  carbon  "  and  the  mineral  matter 
or  ash  of  the  original  coal. 

The  water  g^s  process  was  foreshadowed  by 
Fontana  in^S^j^in  1834  Ibbetson  applied  the 
idea  by  passing  steam  through  a  mass  of  incan- 
descent carbon.  Within  thirty-five  years  there 
were  over  sixty  patents  for  water  gas  processes 
issued. 

Professor  Thaddeus  S.  C.  Lowe,  however,  is 
the  father  of  the  carbureted  water  gas  process, 
which  is,  therefore,  generally  referred  to  as  the 
Lowe  process.  He  secured  a  patent  in  1872  for 
making  water  gas,  and  also  one  in  1873  for  a 
coal  gas  process.      Tessie  Du  Motay  also   per- 


68  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

fected  the  same  process  at  the  same  time  but 
independently  of  Professor  Lowe. 

Lowe  first  began  making  gas  for  balloons  in 
1862,  during  the  Civil  War  for  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  and  was  said  to  be  perfecting  the 
construction  of  a  huge  airship  like  the  Zeppe- 
lin, just  before  he  died.  Napoleon,  you  remem- 
ber, made  good  use  of  balloons  when  he  was 
master  of  Europe. 

Professor  Lowe  patented,  in  1865,  the  first 
machine  for  making  ice;  and  founded,  on 
Mount  Lowe,  in  California,  the  observatory 
which  bears  his  name.  He  was  born  in  1832 
and  died  in  1913. 

Carbureted  water  gas  is  made  intermittently 
and  the  process  involves  the  production  of  two 
kinds  of  gases,  blue  gas  (or  water  gas)  and  oil 
gas  to  carburet  or  "enrich"  the  blue  gas. 

Coke  and  oil  are  the  chief  raw  materials  for 
making  carbureted  water  gas.  The  coke  must 
be  hard  to  crush,  low  in  sulphur,  and  low  in  ash 
which  should  have  a  high  fusing  temperature. 
If  anthracite  ("hard")  coal  is  used  instead  of 
coke,  the  coal  must  fulfil  the  same  requirements 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      69 


^QP.S  OIL 


SUPERH[ATE 


CW».3URETCR 
JBlRST  IMLET 

USED  ONl-Y  TO 
HEBT  CHECKER 
BRICK  WKEN  CA» 
IS  NOT  BtlN4 
WAOL. 


roOR  WHICH 
IS  REMOVED 
TO  CHRRCE.  COKES 

INTO  &ENtRRT0R 

(M,  NEEDED. 


SARBURLTER. 


CENERRTOR. 


DOOR 
WHICH  IS' 
REMOVED  TO 
CLEAN  OUT 
CL1NKE.RS  AND 
/»5MtS. 


&i3- 


rh 


SUPE.RHERTER 
BLRST  INLE.T 

USED  ONLY  TO 
HEAT  CHECKER 
BP.ICK  WHEN  <;ASI» 
NOT  OElNCMROt. 


OP^RPTINC.   FL<?9,|^ 


-VERY  HOT  COKE 

ACTS  ON  STLRMTOFORM 
BLUE  OR  WATER  GAS. 


7<— BLAST   09EOT0  HtflT  COKt  »ft«C», 

INLET.      CBS   \S  NOT   6EINC  MADt.        ' 


... ^'/:':"X^^7ffvy^^^^^■!;^^.•'^-^ .-    ■  .      ■ ,. 

What  goes  on  in  a  "  gas  machine  " 


70  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

as  the  coke.  Oil  for  carbureting  should  contain 
little  sulphur  and  asphalt. 

One  type  of  carbureted  water  gas  set  consists 
of  three  round  steel  towers,  the  generator,  the 
carburetor,  and  the  superheater.  The  last  two 
are  lined  with  firebricks,  and  are  almost  filled 
with  layers  of  bricks  so  as  to  give  a  honeycomb 
interior. 

The  generator  is  filled  almost  full  of  burning 
coke  and  air  is  blown  through  it  until  the  fuel 
is  nearly  white  hot  and  the  checker  bricks  in 
the  other  compartments  are  dull  red.  Then  the 
air  is  shut  off  and  steam  is  passed  through 
the  hot  fuel  bed.  Steam  reacts  with  the  hot 
carbon  (which  is  a  large  part  of  coke)  to  pro- 
duce blue  gas  which  is  composed  of  two  gases, 
hydrogen  and  carbon  monoxide. 

But  blue  gas  does  not  have  a  high  enough 
heating  value  and  has  to  be  passed  into  the  other 
chambers  where  gas  oil  (part  of  petroleum  after 
gasoline,  kerosene,  etc.,  have  been  removed)  is 
sprayed  upon  the  hot  checker  bricks.  The  gas- 
oil  decomposes  into  oil-gas  which  mixes  with  the 
blue  gas,  thus  increasing  the  heating  value   to 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      71 

the  point  required  for  lighting,  heating,  cook- 
ing, and  power. 

When  the  coke  and  the  checker  bricks  have 
become  cool  (because  it  takes  a  lot  of  heat  to 
make  gas),  the  oil  and  steam  are  shut  off  and  air 
again  blown  through  the  coke  until  the  set  is  hot 
enough  to  make  gas.  This  cycle  of  "blows  and 
runs"  is  repeated  throughout  the  twenty-four 
hours,  with  intermissions  only  to  '^  charge  "  more 
coke  into  the  generator  or  to  clean  ashes  from 
the  generator  grate. 

Charles  Lampkin  operated  one  of  Professor 
Lowe's  first  carbureted  water  gas  sets.  Everyone 
was  afraid  the  apparatus  would  explode,  and  to 
protect  the  operator  the  valves  were  placed 
behind  a  stone  wall.  Peep-holes  were  made  in 
the  wall  so  that  those  present  could  watch  the 
set.  Everyone  was  surprised  when  there  was  no 
explosion. 

At  Phoenixville,  Pa.,  the  first  water  gas  plant 
was  built  in  1874;  the  second  plant  was  installed 
in  1874-5  at  Conshohocken,  Pa.,  and  caused  a 
revolution  in  gas  making.  It  was  a  "  one-man 
plant"  for  William  M.  Cosh  made  all  the  gas, 


72  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

put  in  services,  set  all  meters,  took  meter  read- 
ings, made  out  bills,  collected  the  money,  banked 
it,  bought  and  paid  for  all  material  used. 

The  apparatus  for  the  new  process  was  more 
compact,  and  generally  required  less  labor,  so 
its  use  spread  quite  rapidly,  especially  when 
Pennsylvania  petroleum  became  commercially 
available. 

The  water-gas  process  was  introduced  into 
England  by  an  American  called  Van  Steen- 
burgh,  in  1889.  Alexander  C.  Humphreys, 
President  of  Stevens  Institute,  built  the  first 
plant  at  Beckton  in  1890.  A  modification  of  the 
Lowe  plant,  known  as  the  "  Humphreys  and 
Glasgow,"  is  the  one  most  used  in  England, 
where  the  process  is  chiefly  used  to  enrich  and 
augment  the  supply  of  coal  gas. 

In  England  a  process  of  making  gas  from  oil 
was  promoted  as  early  as  1820,  and  in  spite  of 
vigorous  opposition  a  Bill  for  that  purpose  was 
defeated  and  Bristol  lighted  with  gas  in  1823. 

On  the  Pacific  Coast  where  coal  is  scarce,  gas 
is  made  from  oil  which  is  plentiful.  Two  men 
lay  claim  to  the  method:   E.   C.  Jones,  until 


MANUFACTliRE  OF  COAL  GAS 


MANUFACTURE  OF  C4RBURETTED 
>«S^i...c»       WATER  GAS 


Water  Gas  Apparatus 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      73 

recently  Chief  Engineer  of  the  Pacific  Gas  and 
Electric  Company,  and  Leon  P.  Lowe,  son  of 
Professor  Lowe  who  invented  the  carbureted 
water-gas  method,  which  is  the  basic  process. 

It  is  claimed  that  the  Jones  process  w^as  in- 
stalled December,  1904,  and  that  Lowe's  patents 
were  secured  respectively,  in  1906  and  1908. 

Oil  gas  is  made  in  an  apparatus  similar  to 
that  for  making  carbureted  water-gas.  How- 
ever, the  entire  apparatus  is  filled  with  checker 
bricks,  and  oil  alone  is  used  for  fuel. 

During  the  heating  period  oil  is  burned  with 
air  in  the  checkerwork;  then  during  the  gas- 
making  period  oil  is  decomposed  by  the  heat 
retained  in  the  checker  brick.  But  there  is  much 
lamp  black  (carbon)  produced  when  oil  is 
decomposed;  so  steam  is  introduced  with  the 
oil  to  react  with  the  hot  carbon,  just  as  in 
making  carbureted  water-gas,  thus  increasing 
the  amount  of  gas  produced. 

In  order  to  have  a  steady  supply  of  coke  of 
uniformly  high  quality  for  their  water-gas 
plants,  some  gas  companies  operate  by-product 
coke-ovens.     Such  a  plant  produces  both  coal 


74  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

gas  and  coke.  The  operation  is  somewhat  as 
follows:  Bituminous  (soft)  coal,  crushed  to  a 
uniform  size  that  80  per  cent  of  it  will  pass 
through  a  screen  with  quarter-inch  openings,  is 
hoisted  to  large  coal  bins  located  above  the  cok- 
ing-ovens. Four  chutes  at  the  bottom  of  these 
bins  deliver  the  coal  into  four  compartments  of 
a  larry  car.  This  larry  is  electrically  driven  on 
a  track  laid  on  the  top  of  the  ovens  that  are  to  be 
charged,  and  is  filled  with  coal.  When  the  coal- 
loaded  larry  is  immediately  over  the  ovens,  the 
charging  doors  are  opened,  the  coal  allowed  to 
drop  from  the  compartments  into  the  ovens,  and 
the  oven  doors  closed  and  luted  (sealed). 

The  coal  in  the  air-tight  chambers  is  then 
gradually  heated,  practically  melted,  by  indi- 
rect heat  conducted  into  the  several  flues  built  in 
the  brick  walls  surrounding  the  ovens,  and 
produced  by  the  combustion  of  fuel  gas.  The 
temperature  in  these  wall  flues  varies  with  the 
coking  period,  but  is  generally  kept  at  2400°  to 
2600°  Fahrenheit  for  a  sixteen  to  tvventy-four 
hour  period. 

At  the  end  of  the  carbonizing  period  the  oven 


Hoiv  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      75 

doors  at  each  end  of  the  oven  are  removed  and 
the  hot  coke  forced  out  by  the  pusher  ram  into  a 
coke  car  which  is  hustled  to  a  quenching  station 
where  just  enough  water  is  sprayed  on  the  coke 
to  stop  it  from  burning. 

The  coke  car  delivers  the  coke  onto  a  sloping 
wharf  where  it  cools  before  being  low^ered  on 
the  belt  conveyor.  On  this  belt  the  coke  is  car- 
ried over  a  series  of  screens  where  it  is  separated 
into  several  sizes  according  to  use.  Other  belts 
carry  the  coke  away — the  large  size  to  the  coke 
bins  for  water-gas  production  or  into  cars  for 
metallurgical  uses;  smaller  size  for  domestic 
use;  and  the  finest,  called  "breeze,"  to  the  boiler 
house  for  generating  steam. 

That  disposes  of  the  coke.  The  gas  produced 
is  handled  in  the  usual  way.  It  leaves  the  oven 
chambers  through  a  pipe,  usually  called  the 
"hydraulic  main"  into  a  primary  cooler, 
condenser,  then  to  the  exhausters,  through  the 
tar  extractors,  under  pressure,  to  the  saturators 
where  the  ammonia  sulphate  is  removed.  The 
gas  goes  next  to  another  cooler,  part  returned  to 
the  ovens  for  reheating  them   up   for   the   next 


76  TJie  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

charge,  and  the  remainder  through  the  purify- 
ing apparatus  and  into  the  storage  holder  for 
delivery  to  the  consumer. 

The  by-product  coke-oven  process  was  pri- 
marily designed  for  producing  coke  for  steel- 
making  purposes;  it  also  yields  large  quantities 
of  industrial  gas,  ammonia,  tar  and  other  by- 
products. The  coal  gas  process  primarily  sup- 
plies gas.  Coke,  ammonia,  tar,  etc.,  are  by- 
products. 

Besides  the  coal  gas  and  the  by-product  coke- 
oven  processes,  a  third  method  of  distilling  coal 
on  a  large  scale  is  in  beehive  coke-ovens.  Coke 
alone  is  produced,  the  gas  is  partly  used  to 
produce  the  heat  needed  in  carbonizing  the  coal, 
or  is  allowed  to  escape  in  the  air.  Because  of 
its  waste,  this  method  is  rapidly  being  replaced 
by  ovens  of  the  recovery  type. 

In  the  preceding  paragraphs,  the  method  of 
making  gas  in  each  of  four  ways  has  been  briefly 
told.  There  are  other  gases,  such  as  producer 
gas,  Pintsch  gas,  etc.,  but  the  processes  are  vari- 
ations of  those  described. 

There    are    in   all   manufactured   gas,   even 


m 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      77 

though  the  best  quality  of  coal,  coke  and  oil  is 
used  as  prescribed  under  each  process,  impuri- 
ties which  give  to  gas  a  strong  smell.  Some  of 
these  impurities  are  injurious  to  health  and 
therefore  must  be  removed. 


Cover 


Purifying  box 

As  the  gas  is  released  from  the  coal,  coke,  or 
oil  it  passes  through  several  large  containers, 
(condenser,     scrubber,    and    purifier)    through 


78  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

cold  water,  over  wooden  slat  trays,  ahd  through 
wood  shavings  mixed  with  iron  oxide.  Little 
by  little  the  tar  and  vapors  settle  in  the  water 


Relief  gas  holder.     Notice  water  at  bottom  even  with  gas 

inlet  and  outlet.     Row  boats,  used  in  constructing  large 

storage  holders,  are  often  left  in  holders 

and  on  the  wood,  sulphur  and  ammonia  are 
removed  in  scrubbers  and  purifying  boxes.  Not 
all  these  impurities  can  be  removed,    however. 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      79 

And  it  is  a  good  thing  that  they  cannot.  For 
the  gas  is  colorless  and  cannot  be  seen;  and,  if 
it  also  had  no  smell,  we  would  not  be  able  to 
notice  it  w^hen  it  escaped. 

Unless  gas  is  kept  under  perfect  control,  it 
becomes  dangerous  just  like  fire,  water,  and 
electricity.  After  being  made,  gas  is  stored  in 
large  tanks.  These  tanks  are  called  gas  holders, 
since  they  hold  the  gas  in  storage  until  mother 
needs  it  for  preparing  breakfast  and  the  manu- 
facturer for  heating. 

Lavoisier,  a  Frenchman,  discovered  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  gas  holder  in  1781.  A  holder  is 
built  like  a  collapsible  drinking  cup  turned 
upside  down.  The  lowest  section  is  practically 
filled  with  water;  the  cups,  or  overlapping  rims, 
are  also  filled  w^ith  water  to  keep  them  gas-tight. 
As  the  gas  enters  at  the  bottom,  it  slowly  pushes 
up  first  the  top  lift  and  then  the  others,  one  by 
one. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  industry,  gas  holders 
were  inclosed  in  brick  buildings  to  keep  them 
from  being  blown  down  by  strong  winds,  and  to 
keep  the  water  in  the  cups  from  freezing  in  win- 


80 


The  Roma?ice  of  the  Gas  Industry 


ter.  There  are  two  such  built-in  holders  in 
Chicago.  Today,  an  excellent  system  of  guide 
framing  and  steam  circulation  in  cups  do  away 
with  the  necessity  for  this  building  protec- 
tion. 


Gun  barrels  screwed  together  into  a  continuous  tube  for 
delivering  gas 

Were  it  not  possible  to  keep  the  '^soul  of 
coal"  in  tight  holders  and  pipes,  gas  would  be 
doing  a  great  harm  —  instead  of  a  great  good  — 
in  this  world.  Fortunately  men  have  learned 
not  only  how  to  keep  gas  under  control  —  just 
as  the  fisherman  did  with  the  wicked  genie  that 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      81 

almost  escaped  from  the  urn  he  found  near  the 
seashore  —  but  also  to  put  gas  to  thousands  of 
profitable  uses. 

From  the  holder  gas  is  conducted  to  homes 
and  factories,  first  in  large  cast  iron  or  steel 
mains,  and  from  these  through  smaller  pipes, 
called  "services,"  to  the  exact  place  where  heat 
or  light  is  wanted. 

It  is  said  that  at  first  gun  barrels  were  used 
in  England  to  distribute  gas ;  wooden  pipes  have 
also  been  used.  A  small  company  in  Rhode 
Island  has  still  300  feet  of  wooden  mains  in  use. 
Glass  and  concrete  pipes  have  been  used. 

Both  gas  and  water  are  delivered  in  cities 
through  pipes.  The  gas  supply  never  fails.  It 
is  always  ready  for  immediate  delivery.  Use 
it  in  any  quantity  and  pay  for  it  after  use. 

Managers  of  gas  plants  take  great  pride  in 
manufacturing  and  selling  to  the  public  a  ser- 
vice that  never  fails  —  although  labor  and  ma- 
terial may  be  scarce  and  dear. 

In  King's  Treatise  on  the  Manufacture  and 
Distribution  of  Coal  Gas  published  in  1878  we 
read: 


82  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Before  the  invention  of  the  meter  the  quantity  and  cost  of 
the  gas  supplied  to  the  pubhc  were  estimated  by  the  number 
of  hours  it  was  consumed  through  burners  of  a  given  size, 
inspectors  being  appointed  to  go  the  round  of  the  several  dis- 
tricts at  stipulated  hours  of  the  night,  to  see  that  the  lights 
were  duly  extinguished  according  to  contract.  When  the 
light  was  seen  to  be  burning  beyond  the  prescribed  hour  in 
any  premises,  the  inspector  announced  his  visit  by  striking  an 
iron  rod  which  he  carried,  or  if  this  was  ineffectual,  by  a 
loud  rap  at  the  door  of  the  consumer,  and  this  was  usually 
the  signal  for  a  general  extinguishment,  resort  being  then 
had  to  the  dim  and  imperfect  light  of  the  candle  or  oil 
lamps  as  they  then  existed ;  and  when  these  warnings  were 
of  no  effect,  it  was  the  inspector's  duty  to  close  the  tap  at- 
tached to  the  service  pipe  in  the  street  outside. 

It  will  readily  be  understood  that  the  contract  system  was 
fruitful  of  complaint  and  disagreement  between  the  compa- 
nies and  their  customers  and  that  unscrupulous  consumers 
reaped  advantages  at  the  expense  of  the  companies,  and  be- 
yond what  their  more  honest  neighbors  cared  to  appropriate. 
In  this  w^ay  the  introduction  of  some  method  of  measurement 
by  automatic  and  inexpensive  means  became  a  matter  of 
pressing  necessity;  but  even  after  the  invention  of  the  meter, 
for  many  years  the  system  of  allowing  private  consumers  to 
burn  by  contract  was  continued  to  a  greater  or  less  extent. 
The  adoption  of  the  meter  was  even  discouraged  by  some  of 
the  companies,  so  difficult  is  it  to  move  some  minds  out  of 
the  rut  in  which  they  have  been  accustomed  to  travel. 

Peckston  in  his  Theory  and  Practice  of  Gas 
Lighting,  1833,  says: 

The  idea  of  selling  the  gas  by  measure,  instead  of  the  inac- 
curate method  of  disposing  thereof  by  the  time  of  burning 
and  size  of  burner,  seems  to  have  originated  with  the  Char- 
tered Gas  Light  Company  in  the  year  1815;  for,  in  the 
latter  end  of  that  year,  or  very  early  in  the  ensuing  one,  Mr. 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      83 

Samuel  Clegg,  who  was  at  that  time  its  engineer,  constructed 
a  gas  meter  of  the  following  description:  To  a  wooden 
frame  were  attached  two  small  cylindrical  vessels,  in  which 
worked  two  gas  holders,  each  containing,  we  w^ill  say,  for  the 
sake  of  speaking  of  a  specific  quantity,  one  cubic  foot. 

About  1840  (this  quotation  is  from  Richards'  Practical 
Treatise  on  the  Manufacture  and  Distribution  of  Coal 
Gas),  the  Chartered  Company  began  to  understand  the  great 
importance  of  the  instruments  in  question,  and  by  their 
directors  it  w^as  resolved  that  meters  should  be  introduced  to 
the  exclusion  of  contract  burning,  or,  as  it  may  now  be  nec- 
essary to  explain,  the  sj^stem  of  charging  a  certain  sum  per 
annum  for  each  light  upon  the  premises,  as  universally 
adopted  before  the  introduction  of  the  meter.  This  resolu- 
tion met  with  the  strongest  opposition  from  consumers ;  and 
subsequently,  when  it  was  decided  that  the  supply  would  be 
discontinued  if  not  furnished  by  this  means,  many  submitted 
for  a  time  to  that  alternative  rather  than  admit  the  "mystery 
box,"  as  it  w^as  sometimes  called,  into  their  premises. 

And  it  must  be  admitted  when  all  circumstances  are  con- 
sidered, that  there  was  some  excuse  for  this  prejudice,  for 
the  action  of  the  instrument  itself,  measuring  constantly  and 
silently,  a  subtle  fluid  like  gas,  was  to  many  no  doubt  myste- 
rious. Moreover,  a  most  imperfect  surveillance  had  previ- 
ously been  observed  with  respect  to  contract  consumers,  who 
frequently  burned  three  or  four  times  the  quantity  of  gas 
they  were  entitled  to,  which  by  the  meter  was,  however,  cor- 
rected, w^hen  for  want  of  a  better  means  of  explanation,  the 
extra  charge  was  attributed  to  a  system  of  jugglery,  of 
which,  by  some  consumers,  gas  inspectors  were  considered 
adepts. 

In  France  the  meter  was  legalized  as  a  measure  in  1846, 
when  the  government  made  the  necessary  stipulation  as  to 
range  or  variation  from  the  correct  measurement,  and  the 
other  rules  to  be  observed  in  the  construction  of  these  instru- 
ments. A  few  years  afterwards  most  of  the  continental 
countries  adopted  similar  steps. 


84  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Both  manufactured  gas  and  natural  gas  had 
been  sold  on  a  contract  basis.  It  was  this  unme- 
tered  service  that  exhausted  the  supply  of 
natural  gas  so  early  in  the  United  States. 
Natural  gas  was  allowed  to  burn  both  day  and 
night.  Companies  that  furnished  manufactured 
gas,  however,  had  an  inspector  make  the  rounds 
at  a  certain  hour  at  night.  He  announced  his 
visit  with  loud  rappings  on  the  sidewalk  when 
people  would  resort  to  candles  or  oil  lamps.  If 
they  did  not  discontinue  gas  lighting,  he  would 
promptly  shut  ofi  the  gas. 

In  1859  there  were  nearly  1,000  public  gas 
works  in  England.  The  1921  Gas  World 
Directory  gives  the  following  statistics  on  the 
gas  industry  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  for 
1920: 

Gas  undertakings   1,159 

Consumers 8,102,226 

Meters 4,337,987 

Cookers  and   grillers 4,915,846 

Cubic  feet  of  gas 260,764,000,000 

Australasia  is  credited  w^ith  166  gas  under- 
takings; Canada  with  42;  and  all  other  British 
possessions  with  12. 


»KEN    FROM    ADVERTISEMENT    IN    AMERICAN    GAS    LIGHT  JOURNAL. 


Reading  Gas  Meter  (1860)  and  Mailing  Letter  in  Box  Attached 
to  Gas  Light  Post 


Gas    Meter    with    Glass   Sides   Sliows    Inside    Mechanism 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      85 

Statistics  for  otiier  European  countries  would 
in  all  probability  show  similar  large  increases. 

In  1860  there  were  23  gas  companies  in  Can- 
ada. Among  the  earliest  towns  to  have  gas  were: 
Halifax,  1843;  Montreal  and  Quebec,  1847; 
Toronto,  1848;  and  Ottawa  in  1854. 

Cuba,  Mexico  and  South  America  had  14 
gas  companies  in  1859. 

Statistics  compiled  by  the  American  Gas 
Light  Journal  in  1859  showxd  that  there  existed 
297  gas  companies  in  the  United  States  capital- 
ized at  $42,861,174,  supplying  a  population  of 
4,857,000  through  227,605  private  meters. 

There  has  been  wide  growth  in  the  use  of  gas 
in  the  last  twenty  years.  Statistics  show  the 
growth  as  follows: 

GAS  PRODUCTION,  1901  TO  1920,  IN  1,000  CUBIC  FEET. 

1901 101,625,366  191 1 159,100,674 

1902 92,714,667  1912 178,228,754 

1903 105,676,479  1913 188,285,840 

1904 1 13,930,140  1914 198,838,834 

1905 112,444,237  1915 204,309,522 

1906 122,849,725  1916 231,381,313 

1907 132,011,582  1917 264,493,003 

1908 138,570,073  1918 271,593,141 

1909 143,1 17,693  1919 306,632,786 

1910 149,430,549  1920 319,888,000 


86  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

The  American  Gas  Association  reported  the 
following  statistics  for  the  year  1920: 

Water   gas  companies 444 

Coal  gas  companies 220 

Coal  gas  and  water  gas  mixed 145 

By-Products  coke  oven  plants 86 

Oil  gas   62 

Coke  oven  mixed  with  other  gas 8 

Oil  gas  and  coal  gas  mixed 2 

Oil  gas  and  water  gas  mixed 2 

Coal  gas  and  natural  gas  mixed 1 

Uncertain    6 

Distributing  plants  (gas  bought) 76 

Total  number  of  plants 1,052 

Carbureted  water  gas 

manufactured    211,571,000,000  cubic  feet 

Coal  gas   65,545,000,000     "      " 

Oil  gas 23,707,000,000     "      " 

Other  gases 49,409,000,000     "      " 

Total 350,232,000,000     "      " 

Cities  supplied  with  gas -  . . .  4,600 

Miles  of  mains 68,450 

Gas  users   (households  and  indus- 
tries)      8,837,270 

Population  served 45,997,000 

Coal  used  —  bituminous 7,778,000  short  tons 

Coal  used   —  anthracite 2,025,000     "      " 

Gas  oil  used 954,516,000  gallons 

The  gas  for  domestic  purposes  was  used  in  the 
following  appliances: 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      87 

Cooking  appliances   6,670,000 

Water  heaters   1,423,000 

Room  heaters    1,124,000 

Gas  mantles  for  lighting 10,000,000 

The  average  monthly  consumption  shows  that 
there  is  still  a  large  field  for  gas  service  in 
homes.  In  manufacturing  processes  for  heating 
purposes  of  all  kinds  the  field  is  even  greater. 
Before  many  years  the  proportion  of  gas  used 
for  industrial  purposes  should  be  as  large,  if  not 
larger,  than  that  for  household  uses.  Just  what 
that  would  mean  can  be  seen  from  the  following 
table: 

KOW   GAS    WAS    USED    IN    1920 

Illumination     67,176,000,000  cubic  feet  21.00% 

Domestic  (not  ilium.)..  172,740,000,000     "       *'     54.00% 

Factories 69,320,000,000     '*       "     21.67% 

Miscellaneous 10,652,000,000     "       "       3.33% 

Total    319,888,000,000    "      "  100.00% 

A  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Census  issued  July 
30,  1921,  gives  the  following  progress  of  the 
petroleum  and  natural  gas  industries  for  the 
period  between  the  years  1909  and  1919: 


88  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Per  cent 
1919  1909      inc. 

Number  of  enterprises.  9,814  7,793     25.9 

Number    of    petroleum 

and  natural  gas  wells  260,673  166,320     56.7 

Number  of  natural  gas 

—  gasoline  plants  ...  1,118    

Number  of  persons  em- 
ployed    125,077  59,085  111.7 

Power      used       (horse- 
power)      1,821,367        1,221,969    49.1 

Capital  invested $2,421,485,942  $683,268,497  254.4 

Products 1,001,316,060     185,416,684  440.2 

Petroleum  (42  gallons)      360,016,400     171,559,394  109.8 

Natural      gas       (1,000 
cubic  feet) 1,276,152,627     559,800,490  118.2 

Natural     gas      gasoline 

(gallons)    453,949,852 

Now  as  to  coal:  The  U.  S.  Geological  Sur- 
vey estimated  the  total  production  of  coal  in  the 
world  as  1,430,000,0(X)  tons  in  1920.  Of  this 
amount  the  United  States  produced  about 
586,000,000  tons,  and  Great  Britain,  second  in 
rank  of  output,  232,975,000  tons. 

The  growth  of  the  manufactured  gas  industry, 
however,  is  not  to  be  measured  by  the  total  num- 
ber of  companies  listed  in  a  directory,  year  by 
year.  In  the  early  years  one  community  was 
often  served  by  two  or  more  companies.     Com- 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man     89 

petition  for  patrons  was  very  keen,  and  when  gas 
rates  were  cut  the  service  eventually  suffered. 

When  two  companies  existed  in  the  same 
town  there  were  two  groups  of  manufacturing 
and  distribution  plants,  offices  and  employes. 
But,  the  greater  part  of  one  plan  was  a  duplica- 
tion of  the  other.  One  line  of  gas  mains  in  a 
street  serves  as  well  as  two;  one  superintendent 
can  run  a  large  plant  or  department  about  as 
easily  as  he  can  a  smaller  one.  The  cost  of 
manufacturing  and  delivering  1,000  cubic  feet 
of  gas  is  much  less  for  a  large  company  than  it 
is  for  a  small  one.  Since,  because  of  friction, 
one  36-inch  gas  main  will  deliver  as  much  gas 
as  seventy-eight  6-inch  mains  (w^hich  cost  6.7 
times  as  much  as  the  36-inch  main) ,  it  would  be 
both  foolish  and  wasteful  to  let  more  than  one 
gas  company  lay  mains  in  streets. 

And  so  investors  in  gas  companies — just  as  in 
other  businesses  —  and  patrons  of  gas  service 
finally  realized  that  one  large  company  could 
operate  much  more  efficiently  and  economically 
than  several  small  plants.  They,  therefore,  soon 
curbed  cut-throat  competition  in  gas  service  and 


90  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

merged  several  companies  under  one  manage- 
ment, as  was  done  in  Chicago  and  elsewhere. 

Of  late  years  this  consolidation  has  slowly 
been  extended  to  include  smaller  cities  and 
towns  with  the  result  that  these  small  communi- 
ties enjoy  the  same  standard  of  service  as  the 
densely  populated  cities  and  with  a  lower  price 
and  better  service  than  the  small  companies 
could  give.  Even  gas  and  electric  companies 
have  been  consolidated  so  that  today  hundreds 
of  communities  are  being  served  by  the  same 
super-utility  with  the  result  that  costs  of  opera- 
tions are  lower  and  service  to  patrons  better. 

A  good  example  of  the  economical  results  of 
such  a  consolidation  is  the  case  of  the  Public 
Service  Company  of  Northern  Illinois,  a  com- 
pany supplying  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  towns 
with  both  gas  and  electricity. 

The  average  coal  consumption  of  forty-four 
independent  companies  before  consolidation  ran 
from  eight  to  twelve  pounds  a  kilowatt  hour  of 
electrical  energy;  the  average  consumption  of 
this  company  ran  about  two  pounds  of  coal  a 
kilowatt  hour  of  energy  produced. 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man     91 

If  these  forty-four  plants  had  continued  to 
furnish  separate  service,  they  would  today  col- 
lectively be  using  up  yearly  two  million  tons  of 
coal  more  than  is  used  now  under  the  consolida- 
tion. 

This  achievement  is  what  actuated  a  presi- 
dent of  gas  and  electric  properties  in  fifteen 
states  to  say  in  an  address  entitled,  "  Why  I  am 
in  the  Public  Utility  Business." 

It  is  a  great  pleasure. to  be  engaged  in  a  business  which, 
from  an  industrial  and  financial  point  of  view,  makes  two 
blades  of  grass  grow  where  one  grew  before. 

New  York  City  is  supplied  with  gas  by  the 
Consolidated  Gas  Company  of  New  York,  a 
merger,  November  11,  1884,  of  seven  competing 
companies  as  follows:  The  New  York  Gas 
Light  Company,  incorporated  1823;  Manhattan 
Gas  Light  Company,  1830;  Harlem  Gas  Light 
Company,  1855;  Metropolitan  Gas  Light  Com- 
pany, 1855;  New  York  Mutual  Gas  Light 
Company,  1866;  Municipal  Gas  Light  Com- 
pany, and  the  Knickerbocker  Gas  Light  Com- 
pany in  1876.    Today  the  Consolidated  controls 


92  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

all  the  gas  and  electric  companies  (about  20)  in 
the  Boroughs  of  Bronx,  Kings,  Manhattan, 
Richmond  and  Queens.  In  1921  New 
1,007,279  gas  meters  and  sold 
cubic  feet  of  gas;  and  S2A^677  electric  meters 
which  registered  1,186,346,264  kilowatt  hours  of 
electric  energy. 

Chicago  is  today  served  by  The  Peoples'  Gas 
Light  and  Coke  Company,  incorporated  under 
a  special  act  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  February 
12,  1855.  It  is  the  second  oldest  gas  company 
in  that  city.  The  Chicago  Gas  Light  &  Coke 
Company  is  older,  being  organized  on  Febru- 
ary 12,  1849  —  just  forty  years  after  Lincoln's 
birth. 

The  Peoples  Company  is  a  consolidation  of 
fifteen  other  companies.  The  Act  of  Consolida- 
tion occurred  in  1897  when  seven  competing 
companies  were  merged.  In  that  year  there 
were  1,525  miles  and  583  feet  of  gas  main,  and 
199,473  meters  in  use.  Today  these  total  3,144 
miles  of  mains  and  706,680  meters.  Chicago's 
system  of  mains  today  is  long  enough  to  supply 
gas  for  lighting  the  Statue  of  Liberty  in  New 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      93 

York  on  the  east  and  the  harbor  of  San  Fran- 
cisco on  the  west. 

In  1849  Chicago's  area  was  9.76  square 
miles;  in  1922,  the  area  was  200  square  miles. 

A  gas  company  furnishes  a  community  with 
a  service  that  the  individuals  themselves  cannot 
supply  so  well  separately.  The  fact  that  this 
service  or  utility  is  sold  to  the  general  public 
has  led  to  classing  such  companies  as  public 
utility  corporations.  A  utility  or  public  service 
corporation  must  get  its  right  to  operate  from 
some  legislative  body,  a  town,  city,  or  state. 
Furthermore,  because  it  serves  the  general  pub- 
lic, either  solely  or  partially,  the  interest  of  the 
community  must  be  protected  as  to  price  de- 
manded for  the  service  and  as  to  the  quality  or 
standard  of  the  service  furnished.  Also  the 
interests  of  investors  must  be  constantly  pro- 
tected so  that  they  will  invest  their  savings  in 
securities  of  the  gas  companies,  thereby  provid- 
ing the  money  for  building  plants  and  equip- 
ment for  serving  the  public. 

The  protection  for  patrons  and  investors  is  as- 
sured through  a  neutral  body  usually  called  the 


94  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

State  Public  Utilities  Commission.  In  Illinois 
the  regulatory  body  is  called  the  Illinois  Com- 
merce Commission.  Regulation  of  utilities  by 
state  commissions  means  seeing  that  the  service  is 
good,  that  the  price  for  it  is  sufficient  to  permit 
of  maintaining  good  service,  of  keeping  the 
plant  in  first-class  condition  and  of  paying  a  fair 
rate  of  return  on  the  money  invested. 

In  Great  Britain  utility  questions  are  settled 
directly  between  the  gas  undertakings  and  the 
municipalities.  In  the  United  States  and  its 
territories  there  are  fifty-two  commissions  that 
have  jurisdiction  over  public  utilities.  A  better 
understanding  between  utilities  and  communi- 
ties has  gradually  developed  during  recent 
years,  because  people  realize  that  the  success  of 
the  public  utilities  and  of  the  community  are 
inseparable. 

Regulation  by  state  commission  has  also  cre- 
ated a  growing  confidence,  on  the  part  of  the 
public,  in  privately  owned  and  operated  utilities 
so  that  agitation  by  politicians  and  newspapers 
for  public  ownership  and  operation,  federal  or 
municipal,  is  now  infrequent  and  generally  fu- 


How  Sunshine  Is  Released  for  Use  of  Man      95 

tile.  Furthermore,  frank  and  open  publicity  on 
all  matters  concerning  utilities  has  proved  with- 
out a  doubt  that  government  ownership  and  op- 
eration of  public  utilities  is  a  failure.  The  last 
proof  of  this  is  the  report  of  an  investigation  of 
the  largest  government  owned  electric  power 
system  in  the  world,  representing  an  investment 
of  $200,000,000.  This  investigation  disclosed 
that  privately  owned  and  regulated  utilities  sell 
more  service  per  capita  and  at  lower  rates  than 
governmental  utilities,  besides  being  more  re- 
liable. 

The  result,  therefore,  of  a  better  understand- 
ing between  utilities  and  patrons  is  that  the  util- 
ities are  finding  it  more  and  more  easy  to  induce 
their  employes  and  patrons  to  invest  their  savings 
in  securities  of  utilities  serving  their  immediate 
communities. 

This  practice  of  community  or  customer  own- 
ership of  utilities  is  rapidly  establishing  a  real 
public  ownership  by  persons  vitally  interested 
in  the  industrial  and  civic  progress  of  their 
community. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  "  GAS  FAIRY  "  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

All  day  work  in  the  shop. 

The  weary  tread 
Of  toil  that  knows  ?io  change — 

And  this  is  BREAD. 

At  night  when  work  is  done. 

Her  hand  in  mine. 
The  hope  of  happier  days — 

And  this  is  WINE. 

— Elizabeth  Reeve  Cutter. 

CORPORATIONS  that  supply  us  with 
water,  light,  heat,  telephone,  and  trans- 
portation are  called  public  service  corporations. 
They  furnish  the  public  with  a  very  necessary 
service  and  are,  therefore,  better  known  as  pub- 
lic utilities. 

We  use  the  service  of  these  so-called  public 
utilities  every  day  in  the  year  and  have  become 
so  accustomed  to  them  that,  just  like  breathing, 
we  do  not  give  a  moment's  thought  to  them  nor 
to  the  machines,  men,  and  methods  that  have 
made  them  possible. 

96 


The  "  Gas  Fairy  ''  in  the  Household        97 

For  suppose  that  an  evil  genie  should  sud- 
denly, at  the  wave  of  his  hand,  stop  the  delivery 
of  gas,  electricity,  and  water;  the  running  of 
electric  and  steam  cars;  communication  by  tele- 
phone, telegraph,  and  wireless  —  in  your  com- 
munity. 

In  a  short  time  there  would  be  darkness, 
hunger,  thirst,  fire,  disease,  crime,  murder,  and 
death  everywhere. 

Or  just  suppose  again  that  an  accident  hap- 
pened last  night  destroying  the  gas  works  and 
stopping  the  supply  of  gas  indefinitely  without 
notice  —  that  a  family  of  four  are  living  in  a 
six-room  house  supplied  with  gas  for  lighting, 
cooking  and  heating. 

Daddy  would  have  to  go  to  work  this  morn- 
ing without  his  usual  bath,  shave,  and  breakfast. 
Mary  and  John  would  have  to  eat  a  cold  break- 
fast and  would  arrive  late  at  school.  That 
would  be  an  awful  way  to  start  the  day. 

During  the  day  Mother  would  try  to  buy  an 
oil  stove  and  find  that  they  had  all  been  sold  out 
early  in  the  morning.  She  might  resurrect  an 
oil  lamp  for  lighting. 


98  The  Roynance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

In  the  course  of  time  she  would  have  bought 
a  coal  range  and  a  supply  of  coal  —  and  you 
know  what  that  would  mean  —  coal  dust  and 
smoke.  She  would  also  buy  at  least  six  more 
oil  lamps  for  kitchen,  dining  room,  parlor,  three 
bedrooms,  and  the  hall,  because  electricity 
would  not  be  available  for  weeks  and  weeks — • 
so  many  people  would  want  service  all  at  once 
and,  of  course,  the  electric  company  would  not 
be  prepared  to  take  care  of  them  on  such  short 
notice. 

Mother's  daily  duties  would  now  include 
cleaning  and  filling  seven  (7)  lamps.  Her  work 
would  consist  of  the  following  operations: 

1.  Collecting  and  carrying  7  lamps  into  kitchen. 

2.  Bringing  in  oil  can. 

3.  Removing  carefully  7  shades  and  7  chimneys. 

4.  Scrubbing  soot  from  awkward  inside  of  7  chimneys. 

5.  Snuffing  and  trimming  7  dirty  wicks. 

6.  Unscrewing  cap  of  kerosene  can  and  7  burners  to  let 

in  kerosene. 

7.  Filling  bowls  on  7  lamps  with  oil. 

8.  Screwing  on  7  burners. 

9.  Wiping  ofl  7  bowls  and  stands. 

10.  Putting  on  7  chimneys  and  7  shades. 

11.  Carrying  and  placing  7  lamps  back  into  their  proper 

brackets. 

12.  Screwing  on  cap  of  kerosene  can,   and  carrying  and 

storing  away  can  and  soiled  cloths. 


The  ''  Gas  Fairy  ^'  in  the  Household        99 

13.     Cleaning  up  table  and  trying  to  wash  from  hands  and 
clothes  the  "smell  that  won't  come  off." 

Unlucky  number  of  operations,  you'd  sa}^ 
Yes,  and  just  think  of  the  time  wasted  in  per- 
forming these  useless  operations,  nearly  a  hun- 
dred—  just  count  them  yourself  —  every  day — • 
365  days  a  year  —  while  the  smelly  kerosene 
soils,  sickens,  and  disgusts  Mother.  Compare 
that  situation  with  the  comfort,  convenience, 
and  economy  of  time  with  lighting  by  gas  — 
and  don't  forget  the  soft,  soothing  color  of  gas 
lighting.  No  light  can  be  compared  with  the 
"  Warm  domestic  Radiance  of  Gas  Light "  so 
vividly  described  by  Stevenson. 

The  world  is  too  much  with  us;  late  and  soon. 
Getting  and  spending,  we  lay  waste  our  powers. 
Little  ive  see  in  Nature  that  is  ours; 
We  have  given  our  hearts  away,  a  sordid  boon! 

— ^Wordsworth. 

Now  if  there  is  so  much  work  connected  with 
caring  for  oil  lamps,  just  think  how  much  more 
there  is  in  storing  and  handling  the  coal  needed 
for  cooking  and  heating.  A  well-known  and 
authoritative   efEciency   expert   has   calculated 


100        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

that  Mother  takes  2,113  steps  in  preparing  three 
meals  a  day  in  an  average  kitchen  and  that  three- 
fourths  of  these,  or  1,592  steps,  can  be  saved. 
This  efficiency  expert  says: 

Not  more  than  15  steps  at  most  should  be  taken  to  make 
a  pot  of  coffee  nor  more  than  18  steps  for  making  a  batch  of 
bread,  yet  the  average  housewife  takes  330  steps  to  make 
bread.  Not  more  than  36  steps  should  be  taken  to  make  the 
great  American  favorite  apple  pie,  yet  the  average  house- 
wife takes  about  260  steps.  Two  hundred  and  twenty-four 
of  these  steps  are  wasted  effort — useless  slavery. 

No  wonder  that  the  important  and  fascinating 
art  of  cooking  has  fallen  into  disuse,  that  the 
shortest  path  to  a  man's  heart  is  no  longer  by 
way  of  his  stomach.  To  avoid  the  drudgery  of 
cooking,  many  housewives  have  come  to  patron- 
ize delicatessen  stores,  where  a  miscellaneous  lot 
of  ready-to-serve  foods  makes  it  possible  to  pre- 
pare a  meal  in  a  very  short  time  —  very  often  to 
the  detriment  of  the  health  of  the  family  and  at 
an  increased  cost. 

Fortunately  most  mothers  can  today  save  these 
1,592  useless  footsteps  by  properly  arranging  the 
equipment  in  the  kitchen. 

A    twist   of    the   wrist   and  — PRESTO!  — 


The  ''  Gas  Fairy  "  in  the  Household 


101 


Mother  can  have  a  clean  fuel  for  lighting,  cook- 
ing, and  heating — whenever  she  wants  it  and  for 
as  long  as  she  likes  it,  so  gas  is  really  the  ideal 
fuel  in  a  household  —  the  model  servant  in  the 
home. 

OiNiNG  ROOM      I 


QNtNG  ROOM 


■WBLE 


\^v 


STOVE 


•  PANTW 

TABLE 

H 

I 

SINK 

M 

Poor  and  good  arrangement  of  a  kitchen 

Figare  1— Large  kitchen  in  which  the  in-  Figure  2— Same  kitchen  as  shown  in  fig- 

convenient  arrangement  of  sink  and  table      ore  1.      The  diatances  traveled  have  been 
makes  it  necessary  to  walk  long  difft'^Ti''^^      reduced  and  many  steps  saved  by  cutting 


in  preparing  and  serving  a  meaL 


another  door  into  the  dining-room  and  by 
moving  the  table  and  sink  nearer  to  stove 
and  pantry. 


Many  utility  companies  are  today  endeavor- 
ing to  revive  interest  and  pride  in  home  work 
by  showing  women  how  to  save  labor,  time,  and 
money  —  by  properly  equipping  and  arranging 
the  kitchens  by  using  labor-saving  devices  and 
efficient  household  utilities,  and  by  preparing 
more   nourishing   and   palatable   food.     Better 


102        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

cooked  foods  should  go  far  toward  producing 
better  digestion,  better  dispositions,  better 
health,  better  homes  and  fewer  divorces.  And 
for  gas  companies  to  stimulate  this  interest  by 
means  of  a ''  Home  Service  Department ''  should 
be  the  easiest  undertaking  in  the  world,  for  —  to 
paraphrase  a  well-known  slogan  — ^'  The  Taste 
is  long  remembered  after  the  Price  of  a  Dinner 
has  been  forgotten." 

Man  is  the  only  animal  that  is  able  to  make 
use  of  fire.  It  took  him  a  long  time  to  learn 
how  to  make  it  at  will,  how  to  control  it,  and 
how  to  use  it  effectively.  He  used  it  first  to 
protect  himself  from  wild  beasts  and  to  keep 
himself  warm;  later  for  lighting  and  cooking 
purposes. 

The  walls  of  the  tombs  of  the  Egyptians 
portray  as  early  as  4000  B.C.  the  preparation  of 
meals.  A  painting  of  the  royal  bakery  and 
kitchen  of  Rameses  HI  (about  1600  B.  C.)  illus- 
trates boiling  in  pots  and  frying  on  griddles. 
Bas-reliefs  of  camp-life  of  the  Assyrians  and  the 
Babylonians  give  pictures  of  cooking  over  small 
braziers,  and  baking  in  a  cylindrical  stove. 


Modern    Gas    Heater   of   Radiant    Fire  Type 


The  "  Gas  Fairy  ^'  in  the  Household       105 

Man  of  the  glacial  period  roasted  his  meats 
on  spits  over  embers  of  an  open  fire. 

Boiling  was  done  in  water  placed  in  the 
hollow  of  a  rock  into  which  hot  stones  had  been 
thrown. 

Even  in  Homer's  time  meat  was  roasted  in 
barbecue  fashion.  Ulysses  tended  the  fire; 
Achilles  turned  the  spit;  and  Patroclus  poured 
the  wine. 

The  Romans  perfected  the  brazier.  They 
developed  from  Epicures  into  gluttons.  They 
bathed,  and  barbered  before  meals;  reclined  on 
couches  w^hile  being  served  with  long  courses 
announced  by  "nomenclators." 

"When  the  barbarians  came  in  at  the  front 
door  the  cooks  went  out  at  the  back  door"  is 
literally  true  because  the  northern  invaders  did 
not  relish  the  Roman  delicacies.  And  so  the 
Roman  culinary  art  practically  died  out,  and 
during  the  Middle  Ages  cooking  and  heating 
was  the  crude  method  of  barbarians. 

In  A  Dissertation  on  Roast  Pig,  Charles  Lamb 
relates  entertainingly  how  a  Chinaman,  w^ho 
kept  his  pig  in  the  parlor,  discovered  how  to 


104        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

cook  meat.  His  house  caught  on  fire  accident- 
ally (maybe  a  cow  overturned  a  light)  and 
burned  up  his  Lares  and  Penates,  including  his 

pig. 

While  poking  among  the  ruins,  his  hands 
came  in  contact  with  the  dead  pig,  which  was 
still  very  hot.  His  fingers  were  severely  burned 
and  he  quickly  thrust  them  into  his  mouth. 
Somejof  the  burned  flesh  of  the  pig  had  stuck  to 
his  fingers  and  so  he  found  his  fingers  very  palat- 
able. This  was  his  first  taste  of  cooked  meat, 
and  so  good  did  roast  pig  seem,  that  the  China- 
man continued  to  rebuild  his  house  and  to  burn 
it  down  in  order  to  get  roast  pig — until  finally 
he  discovered  he  could  get  roast  pig  without 
going  to  the  trouble  of  building  and  burning  his 
house. 

The  early  application  of  gas  for  cooking 
would  be  very  interesting  to  tell,  but  space  per- 
mits only  mention  of  the  main  facts. 

Winsor  was  probably  the  first  to  suggest 
manufactured  gas  for  cooking  and  heating,  in 
his  patent  of  1805,  but  little  of  either  was  done 
until  1825,  when  a  magazine  described: 


The  ''  Gas  Fairy  "  in  the  Household      105 

A  small  oven  having  a  circle  of  gas  flames  with  a  reflect- 
ing cone,  enclosed,  in  a  cylinder  of  tin,  from  the  top  of  which 
a  pipe  carried  off  the  burnt  air. 

Nay,  it  will  almost  appear  incredible  to  assert,  that  the 
same  table,  desk  or  sideboard,  which  furnishes  a  light  or 
flame,  will  serve  to  warm  my  room,  and  even  dress  my 
victuals  in  case  of  need ;  and,  by  the  mere  turning  of  a  cock, 
or  the  corking  or  uncorking  of  a  small  pipe  or  tube. 

Thus  did  Winsor  prophecy  a  universal  appli- 
cation of  gas  in  lighting,  heating,  power,  and  an 
important  role  in  the  chemical  arts. 

James  Sharp  of  Northampton,  England, 
demonstrated  in  1830  or  1832,  in  his  own  home 
the  practicability  of  gas  cooking.  A  few  years 
later  John  Barlow  had  a  kitchen  apparatus  for 
roasting,  boiling,  and  steaming.  Inventions  for 
cooking  and  heating  by  gas  became  numerous. 

In  1840  Delbruck  patented  a  burner  consisting 
of  two  tubes  —  one  within  the  other — one  for 
gas  and  one  for  air,  both  under  pressure. 

Thomas  Fletcher  improved  the  Bunsen  burner 
in  1854. 

In  1850  James  Sharp  roasted  a  quantity  of 
meat  and  cooked  a  variety  of  vegetables,  pud- 
dings, and  pies  in  connection  with  a  lecture  on 
"Gastronomy.''    A    French    chef,    Soyer,    the 


106        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

greatest  master  of  the  art  of  cooking  at  that  time, 
roasted  a  joint  of  meat  weighing  535  pounds  in 
a  brick  oven  equipped  with  216  gas  jets.  Alex- 
ander Graham  exhibited  a  gas  cooking  oven  in 
1851  and  sold  many  of  these  for  hotel  and  res- 
taurant purposes,  but  none  for  domestic  use. 

In  1851,  Samuel  Clegg,  Jr.,  in  a  letter  to  the 
editor  of  the  Journal  of  Gas  Lighting,  wrote: 

In  the  Expositor  of  last  week  I  saw  a  portrait  of  Mr. 
Sharp,  the  manager  of  the  Southampton  Gas  Works,  and 
an  article  claiming  for  him  the  invention  of  cooking  by  gas. 
Now,  I  do  not  beh'eve  any  man  living  can  claim  it  as  his  in- 
vention. In  1739  Dr.  Clayton  boiled  eggs  by  a  gas  flame; 
in  1792  Mr.  Murdock  frequently  cooked  chops  and  steaks 
over  gas  jets;  and,  in  1824,  I  perfectly  well  remember  the 
men  at  the  Aetna  Iron  Works,  near  Liverpool,  making  a  gas 
cooking  apparatus,  which  consisted  of  a  gun-barrel  turned 
backwards  and  forwards,  and  pierced  with  numerous  small 
holes.  When  anything  had  to  be  fried  the  gridiron  was 
kept  in  a  horizontal  position;  when  anything  had  to  be 
roasted  it  was  turned  in  a  vertical  position,  and  a  plate  of 
tin  was  placed  behind  the  meat,  as  a  reflector,  or  hastener, 
as  I  think  the  cooks  call  it.  Mr.  Sharp  may  have  contrived 
a  stove  for  cooking  by  gas;  that  is,  pieces  of  iron  so  placed 
as  to  hold  different  things — some  perhaps,  requiring  to  be 
boiled,  others  to  be  fried  or  roasted ;  but  I  believe  that  Mr. 
Alfred  King,  of  Liverpool,  arranged  (I  won't  call  it  in- 
vented, for  it  is  not  worth  the  name,  and  I  am  sure  Mr. 
King  will  not  quarrel  with  the  word)  the  first  convenient 
apparatus  for  cooking  by  gas.  Gas  cooking  stoves  are  not 
yet  perfect;  but  they  are  already  economical,  and  I  hope 
will  very  soon  be  universal. 


Pompeian   Brazier  with  Water-back 


First    Bathtub    Built    About  2000   B.    C,   Found   in   the   Ruins 
of  the    Palace   of    King   Minos 


The  ^'  Gas  Fairy  ''  in  the  Household      107 

Six  years  later  an  extract  from  the  original 
minutes  of  the  Middlesborough,  England,  Cor- 
poration (Gas  Dept.)  ran  as  follows: 

Mr.  Avery  has  applied  for  a  supply  pipe  from  the  works 
to  his  hotel  to  enable  him  to  use  gas  in  the  day  for  cooking. 
The  Committee  agree  to  laying  a  pipe  so  soon  as  the  appa- 
ratus is  ready,  provided  Mr.  Avery  will  guarantee  a  reason- 
able additional  consumption  to  warrant  the  outlay. 

Note  that  the  gas  was  evidently  shut  off  in 
the  town  during  the  day  and  that  this  is  a  re- 
quest for  a  continuous  supply  for  cooking. 

The  first  issue,  July  1,  1859,  of  the  American 
Gas  Light  Journal  carried  two  advertisements 
for  gas  stoves  and  cooking  apparatus. 

A  range  with  a  "porous"  burner  on  the  sur- 
face combustion  principle  was  exhibited  in  the 
Fair  of  the  American  Institute  at  New  York  in 
1859.  Providence,  R.  L,  gas  company  has  the 
distinction  of  having  opened,  in  1873,  the  first 
distinctive  gas  appliance  store.  Today  every 
gas  company  carries  a  stock  of  approved  gas  ap- 
pliances—  gas  ranges  for  the  home,  restaurant, 
and  hotel. 

Have  you  ever  asked  yourself:  What  in  the 
world  would  we  do  without  water?     Water  to 


108        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

slake  our  thirst;  water  with  which  to  wash 
things  clean;  water  to  bathe  in? 

With  the  Egyptians  bathing  was  a  religious 
rite;  even  Moses,  you  remember,  established  a 
religious  ordinance  that  the  Jews  should: 
"  Bathe  his  flesh  in  running  water  and  be  clean." 

The  Greeks  are  said  to  have  been  the  first  to 
use  bath  tubs.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  were 
not  tubs  at  all  but  clumsy  bowls  —  large  enough 
to  hold  water  for  a  bath,  but  not  large  enough 
to  hold  the  bather.  The  bather  stood  on  a  stone 
slab,  dipped  water  out  of  the  bowl,  and  poured 
this  over  his  body — ugh!  The  water  was  cold 
because  the  Greeks  thought  that  hot  water  would 
weaken  the  body  instead  of  invigorate  it. 

In  Homer's  time  warm  baths  were  in  use, 
however.  And  after  the  fifth  century  bathing 
became  a  luxurious  practice  among  the  Greeks. 

On  the  island  Crete,  in  the  city  of  Cnosus  — 
famous  in  the  legend  as  the  home  of  King  Minos 
and  the  labyrinth  where  the  Minotaur  was  con- 
fined—  has  been  discovered,  as  far  as  we  know, 
the  first  bathroom  built  (about  four  thousand 
years  ago). 


The  ''  Gas  Fairy  "  in  the  Household      109 

The  Romans  developed  bathing  to  a  fine  art. 
Every  family  that  could  afford  it  had  a  bath- 
room. This  they  called  the  balneum.  Public 
baths,  called  Thermas,  were  provided  for  the 
men  and  the  women.  Here  both  rich  and  poor 
spent  their  spare  time  in  the  pursuit  of  health 
and  beauty — exercising,  resting,  eating,  con- 
versing, or  listening  to  lectures.  The  largest 
Therma  covered  a  square  mile  of  ground.  The 
Diocletian  accommodated  3,200  bathers  at  one 
time.  Maecenas  was  the  first  to  have  a  swim- 
ming tank  of  hot  water. 

According  to  Pliny,  for  six  hundred  years 
Rome  used  no  medicine  but  her  baths. 

People  of  all  times,  of  course,  have  made  use 
of  both  cold  and  hot  water — to  some  extent. 
They  washed  and  bathed  —  occasionally — in 
ponds,  rivers,  lakes,  or  the  ocean. 

In  1127  Henry  I  of  England  included  bathing 
in  the  initiatory  ceremony  for  knighting  six 
favored  commoners.  He  called  them  the 
Knights  of  the  Bath,  and  thus  originated  the 
'^Orderof  theBath." 

Robert  Hicks  in  1825  took  out  a  patent  for: 


110        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Heating  water  in  baths  by  means  of  burning  spirits  of 
turpentine  and  carbureted  hydrogen  gas  in  chambers  in  the 
bath,  or  tubes  passing  through  or  under  them. 

To  Lord  John  Russell  is  attributed  the  inven- 


Courtesy — Gas-Age    Record. 

Before    the   days   of   gas-fired   water   heaters 

tion  of  a  bath  tub.  In  1830  he  was  thought  to 
have  been  the  only  Englishman  addicted  to 
taking  a  daily  bath.  Adam  Thompson  of  Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio,  visited  Lord  Russell  about  ten 
years  later  and  had  taken  a  hot  bath  in  Russell's 
tub.     Promptly  after  his   return   to  America, 


The  '^  Gas  Fairy  '^  in  the  Household      111 

Thompson  had  a  cabinet  maker  build  for  him  a 
similar  bath.  This  was  made  seven  feet  long 
and  four  feet  wide,  of  mahogany,  lined  with 
sheet  lead.     It  weighed  nearly  a  ton. 

On  December  20,  1842,  at  about  8  A.  M., 
Thompson  took  his  first  morning  bath.  He  was 
so  pleased  with  it  that  he  later  invited  his  friends 
to  test  the  efficacy  of  his  new  bath. 

They  also  became  very  enthusiastic.  But,  the 
introduction  of  bath  tubs  and  daily  bathing  was 
not  so  easily  facilitated  throughout  the  United 
States.  Boston  in  1845  made  bathing  unlawful 
unless  taken  upon  the  advice  of  a  physician.  In 
1850,  President  Fillmore  ordered  a  bath  tub  in- 
stalled in  the  White  House. 

In  1860  every  first-class  hotel  in  New  York 
advertised  bath  tubs.  The  Turkish  bath  was 
introduced  into  America  about  1865.  The  'first 
public  baths  in  Chicago  were  established  in 
1891. 

Since  those  days  the  value  of  bathing  and  of 
plenty  of  water — especially  "hot  water" — has 
slowly  come  to  be  fully  appreciated.  So  gradu- 
ally the  "Order  of  the  Saturday  Night  Batb'' 


112        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

has  given  way  to  the  new  "  Order  of  the  Daily 
Bath."  For  people  have  learned  that  ^'  A  Bath 
a  Day  is  the  best  Health  Insurance." 

All  forms  of  utilizing  gas  is  by  heat.  Light 
is  produced  either  by  carbon  in  the  open  flame 
becoming  luminous,  or  the  mantle  glowing; 
heat  by  directing  fire  into  a  limited  space  or  on 
surfaces. 

The  earliest  means  of  heating  water  is  thought 
to  have  been  by  placing  heated  stones  in  water. 
Winsor  exploited  gas  for  heating  water. 

The  development  of  gas  water  heater  was 
slow  until  natural  gas  was  discovered  in  Penn- 
sylvania. The  evolution  of  circulating  water 
heaters  in  the  United  States  may  be  stated  as 
follows : 

Gas  water  back,  previous  to  1860. 

Application  of  burners  to  the  storage  tank  in  the  early 
sixties. 

First  appearance  of  the  circulating  water  heater  in  1883. 
Tubular  heaters  made  of  iron,  brass  and  copper. 
Sectional  heaters  made  of  iron,  brass. 
Coil  heaters  (single  or  double) — made  of  copper. 

In  England  water  heaters  are  called  "Gey- 
sers," which  is  a  very  appropriate  name  since 


The  *'  Gas  Fairy  ''  in  the  Household       113 

they  spurt  forth  hot  water  and  sometimes  steam 
— whenever  wanted. 

The  first  patent  for  an  instantaneous  auto- 
matic gas  water  heater  was  taken  out  in  Eng- 
land, 1885.  In  the  same  year  one  appeared  in 
the  United  States.  Beckfield  in  1895  developed 
one  with  the  gas  regulated  by  a  water  pressure 
valve,  and  Ruud  in  1897  one  with  a  thermostat 
controlling  the  gas  supply. 

Today,  gas  makes  it  possible  to  have  hot  water 
ready  w^ithin  a  few  minutes  for  washing  or  bath- 
ing. It  is  a  luxury  in  enjoyment  and  a  trifle  in 
expense. 

Monday  used  to  be  the  day  dreaded  by  many 
women  —  but  not  so  today  for  those  women  who 
have  a  gas  laundry.  Mrs.  Modern  Woman  runs 
water  into  her  electric-driven  washing  machine, 
dumps  in  the  clothes  and  soap,  lights  the  gas, 
and  reads  the  morning  paper  until  the  clothes 
have  boiled;  then  she  turns  the  gas  lower  and 
lets  the  mechanism  of  the  washer  remove  all  the 
dirt  from  the  fibers  —  while  finishing  the  paper. 
The  clothes  cleaned,  she  turns  out  the  gas,  opens 
the  drain  from  the  washing  machine,  throws 


114        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

a  lever  to  stop  the  machine  and  start  the  wringer. 
As  the  clothes  are  fed  through  the  wringer,  they 
fall  into  the  rinse  water,  from  which  they  are 
again  put  through  the  wringer  and  are  ready  for 
the  gas-heated  dryer.  The  dryer,  though  only 
eight  feet  long  and  two  feet  wide,  dries  clothes 
faster  than  they  can  be  washed  or  ironed. 

The  washing  ^'on  the  line"  of  the  dryer,  the 
gas  to  the  ironer  is  lighted.  Several  pieces  are 
removed  from  the  dryer  and  placed  on  the  table 
of  the  ironer;  then  she  sits  down,  starts  the  rolls 
and  as  the  pieces  come  through  the  ironer,  hangs 
them  across  the  folding  rack  at  one  end  of  the 
ironer.  Ninety-four  per  cent  of  the  family 
ironing  requires  no  further  work — tablecloths, 
Madeira,  shirts,  shirt-waists  all  go  through  — 
with  the  help  of  the  gas  fairy. 

The  cost  of  operating  each  one  of  the  three 
necessities  for  washing,  drying,  and  ironing  is 
about  five  cents  an  hour.  For  a  family  of  five, 
the  washer  and  dryer  would  be  run  one-half  to 
one  hour  each  and  the  ironer  about  an  hour  — 
total  cost  ten  to  fifteen  cents,  and  the  heaviest  lift 
is  the  weight  of  a  tablecloth,  sheet,  or  blanket. 


The  "  Gas  Fairy  "  in  the  Kousehold      115 

That  is  how  the  up-to-date  housewife  finds 
time  to  go  shopping  on  Monday,  to  make  calls, 
and  to  improve  her  mind.  And  in  some  homes 
today  the  tired  business  man  does  not  have  to 
fire  the  furnace,  or  carry  out  ashes,  because  the 
house  is  entirely  heated  with  gas. 

Penelope,  the  wife  of  Ulysses,  threw  glowing 
embers  out  of  braziers  upon  the  floor  and  placed 
dry  wood  on  them  to  warm  the  room.  That 
was  the  primitive  way  of  room  heating.  The 
Greeks  added  spices  and  gum  to  the  burning 
charcoal  to  give  the  smoke  a  more  agreeable 
odor.  The  American  Indians  built  a  fire  in  the 
center  of  their  wigwams  and  let  the  smoke  es- 
cape at  the  top. 

The  Romans  were  very  progressive  in  cook- 
ing and  in  heating  public  buildings.  Seneca 
wrote : 

Many  inventions  have  come  within  my  memory  such  as 
windovi^s  made  of  transparent  plate,  suspended  baths,  and 
pipes  from  hypocausts  so  inserted  into  the  walls  as  to  spread 
an  equal  warmth  through  the  room,  and  heat  what  rooms 
are  beneath  as  well  as  above. 

A  hypocaust  was  a  low  basement  chamber 
where  fuel  was  introduced  and  burned.  It  was 
invented  by  Sergius  Orato  in  100  B.C.     A  room 


116        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 


Jr{//.     J  /_    /> 


Courtesy — Barstow  Stove  Co. 

Roman  hypocaust,  the  forerunner  of  the  modern  hot-air 

furnace 

above  the  hypocaust  became  heated  and  from 
this  room  flues  ran  along  the  floor  and  upward 
inside  the  walls  to  other  rooms.  The  modern 
hot  air  furnace,  only  a  hundred  years  old,  is  built 
on  the  principle  of  the  hypocaust. 


The  ''  Gas  Fairy  "  in  the  Household       117 

Water  for  the  famous  baths  of  the  Romans 
was  heated  by  hypocausts. 

Another  way  of  heating  water  besides  in  tanks 
was  by  means  of  "  dracones" — coils  of  thin  brass 
pipes  passing  through  large  jars  heated  by 
flames.  This  resembles  the  instantaneous  hot 
water  system  of  today. 

Heating  of  private  buildings  was  crude 
everywhere  even  with  the  Romans.  Chimneys 
had  been  invented,  but  they  were  not  used  for 
kitchens  or  houses.  House  heating  was  done 
either  in  braziers  or  on  a  stone  in  the  middle  of 
the  room.  The  smoke  and  soot  flew  everywhere 
except  up  through  the  hole  in  the  roof.  Em- 
peror Jovain  is  said  to  have  been  suffocated  from 
charcoal  fire  while  sleeping  in  his  bedroom  in 
Dadastana  in  Galatia. 

The  ruins  of  Pompeii,  however,  show  that 
chimneys  were  used  in  bake  shops.  And  Strabo 
says  they  were  used  in  smelting  ores.  Chimneys 
were  first  introduced  in  France  in  the  eighth 
century;  but  it  was  six  hundred  years  before 
they  were  generally  adopted. 

Lebon's  "thermolamp,''  a  closed  stove  burn- 


118        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

ing  wood  or  coal  and  furnishing  both  heat  and 
light,  seems  to  be  the  first  attempt  to  use  gas  for 
heating  a  room.  It  was  patented  between  1786 
and  1801. 

Winsor,  we  have  seen,  advocated  gas  for  heat- 
ing while  attempting  to  organize  the  National 
Light  and  Heat  Company.  Other  patents  in 
England,  by  Barres  in  1833  and  by  Hadden  and 
Johnstone,  related  to  "warming  the  interior  of 
buildings."  After  1840  various  appliances  for 
heating  by  gas  were  devised  and  a  demand 
created  for  them  by  public  lectures  and  exhi- 
bitions. 

A  letter,  dated  London,  December  24,  1849, 
states  that: 


We  heat  offices,  bedrooms,  halls,  and  a  variety  of  places 
where  chimney  flues  are  objectionable  and  our  churches  have 
frequently  gas  stoves  beneath  the  floors.  Indeed  every  year 
gas  is  supplanting  coal,  and  were  it  not  that  we  love  the  sight 
of  the  open  fire,  it  would  do  so  much  faster. 


Edwards  took  out  a  patent  in  1849  for  a 
*^gas  fire"  which  consisted  of  refractory  ma- 
terials which  became  glowing  red  by  the  burn- 
ing gas.     Besides  these  terra  cotta  stoves,  there 


The  ''  Gas  Fairy  "  in  the  Household      119 

were  the  '^  Cheerful  '^  which  had  a  floral  design 
embossed  in  the  corrugated  plate  where  the  gas 
burned,  also  the  ^'Brilliant." 

The  forerunner  of  the  late  asbestos  backed 
gas  stove  was  patented  in  1856.  Several  ven- 
tures were  made  to  use  gas  for  heating  on  a  large 


Early  English  terra  cotta  gas  stoves 

scale,  but  all  were  unprofitable.  The  Gas  Fire 
Company,  incorporated  in  1852  for  the  "pro- 
duction of  fires  and  heat  by  the  agency  of  gas  in 
dwellings  and  other  buildings  within  England," 
was  one. 

The  first  gas  heating  stoves  in  the  United 
States  were  used  in  Boston  in  1859. 

In  the  natural  gas  regions  heating  by  gas  was 


120        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

very  extensive.  The  asbestos  log,  and  other 
imitations  of  coal  and  wood,  did  not  permit  of  a 
perfect  combustion  of  the  gases,  and  so  these 
appliances,  therefore,  always  produced  a  bad 
odor  of  unburned  gases  in  the  room  which  pre- 
vented their  wide  adoption  for  manufactured 
gas. 

"  Reflector"  type  is  one  of  the  earliest  in  this 
country. 

A  very  cheerful  and  economical  space  heater 
is  the  "Radiant  gas  heater"  types.  One  con- 
sists of  refractory  uprights  which  glow  with 
cheery  warmth.  The  gas  burns  perfectly  and 
there  is  no  odor. 

Hot  water  and  steam  radiators  heated  by 
gas  are  now  available  for  any  kind  of  building. 

It  makes  no  difference  how  small  or  large  the 
space  may  be  that  needs  to  be  heated,  gas  can  do 
it,  provided  the  right  appliance  is  selected. 

Gas  is  today  an  essential  household  service 
and  more  reasonable  in  price  than  any  other 
commodity.  Many  a  man,  woman,  and  child 
spends  more  on  amusements  and  luxuries,  day  by 
day  during  the  month,  than  the  month's  gas  bill 


The  ''  Gas  Fairy  "  in  the  Household       121 

amounts  to.  In  most  homes  the  money  spent  for 
daily  newspapers  is  more  than  it  costs  to  cook 
for  the  entire  family. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

GAS   SERVICE  —  THE  GROWING  GIANT  IN   INDUS- 
TRIES 

The  scientific  spirit  has  cast  out  the  demons  and 
presented  us  with  Nature,  clothed  in  her  right 
mind  and  living  under  the  reign  of  law.  It  has 
given  us  for  the  sorceries  of  the  alchemist,  the  beau- 
tiful laws  of  chemistry;  for  the  dreams  of  the 
astrologer,  the  sublime  truths  of  astronomy ;  for* 
the  wild  visions  of  cos?nogony,  the  monuinental 
records  of  geology;  for  the  anarchy  of  diabolism, 
the  laws  of  God.  — James  Abram  Garfield. 

JUST  as  there  is  a  great  deal  of  mystery  con- 
nected with  the  origin  of  our  earth,  just  so 
is  there  a  large  amount  of  speculation  and  con- 
troversy concerning  the  sun,  and  especially  as 
to  its  source  of  energy.  Some  astronomers  and 
physicists  think  the  heat  of  the  sun  is  due  to  or- 
dinary chemical  and  physical  processes.  Others 
say  that  its  tremendous  heat  energy  cannot  be 
caused  by  mere  combustion  because  if  the  sun 
were  made  of  solid  coal,  burning  in  oxygen,  it 
would  be  black  in  three  to  four  thousand  years. 
Then  some  say  this  heat  is  produced  by  the  re- 

122 


Gas  Service  —  Groivin^  Giant  in  Industry  123 

sistance  that  matter  meets  as  the  sun  contracts 
through  gravitation.  Lord  Kelvin  found  that 
by  the  contraction  theory  the  sun  could  not  have 
existed  for  more  than  ten  million  to  eighteen 
million  years,  and  ten  million  years  was  consid- 
ered merely  as  a  day  in  the  making  of  our  world. 
And  so  others  have  advanced  the  theory  that 
this  intense  heat  and  prodigal  outflow  of  energy 
may  be  due  to  the  breaking  up  of  atoms  —  sim- 
ilar to  that  observed  in  uranium  and  radium. 
Radium  you  know — the  most  mysterious  and 
fascinating  mineral  yet  discovered  —  releases  at 
least  ten  million  times  more  energy  than  is  pro- 
duced by  any  chemical  action  known. 

Whatever  the  source  of  the  sun's  energy  may 
be,  astronomers  tell  us  that  there  occurs  on  the 
sun  terrific  eruptions  or  explosions  so  powerful 
that  they  hurl  a  stream  of  gas  a  distance  farther 
than  from  the  earth  to  the  moon  —  with  a 
velocity  frequently  of  a  hundred  miles  a  second 
and  sometimes  two  hundred. 

We  all  know  that  gunpowder,  dynamite,  and 
TNT  can  do  a  great  deal  of  damage.  They 
did  great  harm  during  the  last  war.     If  properly 


124        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

directed  they  can  be  made  to  perform  useful 
work.  For  instance,  dynamite  is  used  today  for 
blasting  rock  and  "plowing"  the  farmer's  land. 
The  Liberty  motor,  as  well  as  all  automobile 
engines,  use  the  energy  released  in  the  vaporized 
gasoline  to  travel  in  the  air  and  on  land. 

It  was  Abbe  d'Hautefeuille  who,  in  1678,  in- 
vented an  engine  that  used  explosive  power  to 
drive  a  piston  working  in  a  cylinder.  Huygen, 
a  Hollander,  made  a  similar  engine  in  1680. 
John  Barber,  an  Englishman,  in  1791  used  a 
mixture  of  hydrogen,  carbon  gas,  and  air  to 
effect  an  explosion  for  motor  purposes.  Lebon 
used  coal  gas  in  1799  to  drive  an  engine. 

But  it  was  the  Frenchman,  Lenoir,  who  made 
the  first  practical  engine  driven  by  gas  (1860). 
Since  that  year  there  have  been  a  thousand  and 
more  patents  issued  for  gas  engines.  These  are 
used  generally  in  large  installations  in  natural 
gas  regions,  but  also  in  industries  where  fuel  gas 
is  a  by-product  of  the  plant. 

By  using  the  gas  exhaust  for  heating  water  it 
is  possible  for  many  factories  to  make  consider- 
able saving  in  other  fuels. 


Gas  Service  —  Growing  Giant  in  Industry   125 

Several  types  of  gas  turbines,  made  on  the 
same  principle  as  the  steam  turbine,  but  using 
explosive  energy  of  burning  gases,  have  also 
been  perfected. 

"  Gas  to  generate  steam  "  was  the  cry  of  God- 
dard  (England)  in  1870.  Fletcher,  in  1886, 
submitted  a  new  departure  in  water  heating. 

Before  1880  the  Tyson  Engine  Company  of 
Philadelphia  had  made  about  one  hundred 
small  gas  generated  steam  engines  for  driving  a 
sewing  machine. 


Gas-fired   steam   engine   for   running  sewing  machine 


126         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Gas  is  today  the  most  convenient  and  satis- 
factory means  of  heating  water  for  domestic 
purposes.  It  promises  to  become  so  also  for 
heating  water  for  factory  uses.  Boilers  can 
easily  be  equipped  to  burn  gas  with  automatic 
gas  control.  Specially  designed  boilers  are, 
however,  more  economical. 

It  seems  absurd  to  say  that  ice  and  cold  can 
be  made  from  heat,  nevertheless  it  is  true.  In 
the  absorption  process  of  refrigeration  a  strong 
solution  of  ammonia  iniwater  is  heated  by  a  gas 
flame;  the  ammonia  boils  before  the  water  does, 
is  led  off  and  liquefied;  the  liquefied  ammonia 
is  allowed  to  enter  the  cooler  or  refrigerator 
coils,  where  it  again  becomes  a  gas. 

When  any  liquid  is  vaporized  it  absorbs  a 
great  deal  of  heat  from  its  surroundings.  This 
is  the  way  that  ice  and  cold  are  produced  by 
using  gas  heat. 

The  usual  methods  of  using  gas  for  factory 
purposes  are  briefly: 

1.  Luminous  burners  (Open  flame) 

2.  Bunsen  burners  (Atmospheric) 

3.  Blast  burners 

4.  Surface  combustion 


Gas  Service  —  Growing  Giant  in  Industry   127 

5.  High-pressure  gas 

6.  Oxygen  gas  burner 

Before  putting  in  a  gas  burning  appliance  the 
combustion  expert  must  know  exactly  what  has 
to  be  accomplished  by  heat,  the  best  appliance 
for  doing  it,  etc.,  etc. 

In  an  advertisement  dated  July,  1859,  Eisner 
of  Berlin  stated  that  there  was  scarcely  a  branch 
of  domestic  or  factory  heating  for  which  gas 
could  not  be  recommended.  If  anyone  knows 
of  one  today,  any  gas  engineer  will  willingly 
apply  himself  to  the  problem. 

Josiah  Pemberton  used  gas  for  soldering  but- 
tons in  his  factory  in  Birmingham,  the  front  of 
w^hich  he  lighted  with  gas  in  1806. 

Mackintosh,  a  Scotchman,  in  1840  made  sev- 
eral tons  of  '^cemented"  steel  by  applying  gas  to 
iron  at  a  dull  red  heat — the  steel  getting  its  car- 
bon from  the  gas. 

A  singeing  apparatus  for  use  in  wool  works 
was  exhibited  at  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1867; 
jewelers  were  using  gas  in  1879.  Several  forms 
of  boilers  for  generating  steam  with  gas  were 
shown  at  the  Royal  Agricultural  Societies  Ex- 
hibition. 


128        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

In  1879  the  South  Shields  Gas  Company  in 
England  exhibited  over  300  appliance  uses  for 
gas.  Today  gas  burning  appliances  number 
thousands  and  thousands,  and  the  industries  in 
which  they  are  used  are  almost  that  number  also, 
and  they  are  increasing  in  number  daily. 

We  have  seen  that  gas  is  an  all  around  servant. 
It  is  used  for  lighting,  for  cooking,  for  heating, 
and  for  power  purposes. 

The  role  of  heating,  however,  holds  forth  the 
greatest  possibilities  for  gas. 

Here  are  a  few  illustrations  where  gas  is  used 
daily:  Baking  and  candy  making,  coffee  roast- 
ing, smoking  meat,  pasteurizing  milk,  glass 
melting,  china  decorating,  hat  shaping,  shoe 
drying,  clothes  pressing,  cigar  lighters,  barber 
boilers,  vulcanizing,  lumber  drying,  tinning, 
varnish  boilers,  rivet  heaters,  forging,  brass 
melting,  galvanizing,  coloring  and  rust  proofing 
metal,  welding  and  cutting  metal,  melting  type, 
foundries,  etc.,  etc. 

The  purposes  for  which  gas  is  used  are  limit- 
less and  fascinating;  model  glass  butterflies;  but- 
ton making;  dies  for  coins  and  plates  for  paper 


Ice    Afachine    Burning    (ias.    Producing    Refrigeration    Equiv- 
alent to  500  Pounds   Dailv 


Battery    of    Coffee    Roasters 


Shrinking  Cloth  with  Steam  from  Gas-Fired  Boiler 


Heating  Rivets  and  Bending  Angle  Iron  and  Plates  in  Manu- 
facturing  Fire   Doors 


Gas  Service  —  Growing  Giant  in  Industry   129 

money  made  in  Uncle  Sam's  mints;  soldering 
wedding  rings;  electric  light  bulbs;  crude  rub- 
ber would  be  worthless  without  gas  heat  and  the 
small  amount  of  carbon  which  it  precipitates  in 
the  rubber;  one  college  professor  lays  claim  to 
making  alcohol  from  city  gas;  and  Humane 
Societies  are  adopting  gas  as  the  most  merciful 
means  of  executing  wounded  animals. 

As  a  fuel  in  factories  it  possesses  many  advan- 
tages over  other  fuels.  It  is  clean,  convenient, 
ahvays  ready  for  use  day  and  night  in  any  quan- 
tity, and  uniform  in  quality.  It  requires  neither 
storage  nor  handling. 

It  has  been  but  a  few  years  since  bakers 
thought  that  the  only  way  possible  to  bake  bread 
was  in  the  old  coal  and  wood  fired  ovens  —  a 
slow,  laborious,  and  intermittent  method.  Yet 
today  they  produce  the  same  evenly  textured 
bread  with  its  crisp  crust  in  gas  fired  ovens,  some 
of  enormous  size;  and  the  production  of  these 
loaves  is  a  continous  process. 

Along  with  bread  we  may  easily  associate 
coflFee.  It  used  to  be  ridiculous  even  to  speak  of 
roasting  coffee  except  over  a  fire  of  pea  coal. 


130        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Yet  in  the  last  two  or  three  years  most  of  this 
equipment  has  been  replaced  by  roasters  fired 
internally  with  gas  as  fuel.  In  some  wholesale 
grocery  houses  batteries  of  them  may  be  seen  and 
strangely  enough  the  coffee  has  still  the  same 
delicious  bouquet  as  when  roasted  with  pea  coal. 

So  we  may  with  very  little  effort  observe  the 
varied  applications  of  gas  to  our  industrial 
activities.  Steam  generated  in  gas-fired  boilers 
up  to  ten  horsepower  and  sometimes  higher  is 
becoming  more  common  every  day — modern 
laundries  have  them;  every  tire  vulcanizing 
shop  must  have  one  to  operate  at  all;  it  has 
found  its  way  into  dairies  for  sterilization; 
tailoring  houses  require  them  in  connection  with 
their  steam  pressing  equipment;  and  in  a  host  of 
other  operations  where  low  pressure  steam  is 
required  and  where  it  is  unsatisfactory  to  bother 
with  a  large  steam  generating  plant  the  gas-fired 
steam  boiler  finds  ready  application. 

Continuing  our  search  we  find  practically  all 
of  our  candy  cooked  in  gas-fired  kettles;  enam- 
eling and  japanning  is  done  in  gas-fired  ovens; 
and  foundry  cores  are  baked  in  similar  ovens. 


Gas  Service  —  Grooving  Giant  in  Industry   131 


Hot  oil  at  a  temperature  of  600°  F.  is  circulated 
through  a  series  of  pipe  coils  to  heat  asphalt  to 
coat  felt  paper  in  the  preparation  of  prepared 
roofing.  The  temperature  of  this  asphalt  must 
be  uniform  and  constant.  Gas-firing  does  the 
trick. 

We  may  not  be  so  well  acquainted  with  the 
use  of  gas  in  the  metallurgical  industries,  but  it 
is  universally  conceded  by  tool  and  die  makers 
that  gas  is  the  only  fuel  to  use  in  annealing,  tem- 
pering, and  drawing  of  steel.  Soft  metal  melt- 
ing is  a  gas  process.  As  examples  we  may  cite 
lead  melting  for  the  manufacture  of  storage 
plates,  aluminum  and  its  alloys  for  die  casting, 
babbitts  and  bearing  metals,  and  brass  for  cast- 
ing. Steel  specialties  which  require  to  be  case 
hardened  have  up  to  the  present  time  been 
packed  in  cumbersome  metal  boxes  along  with 
"carburizing"  material  and  heated  to  a  specific 
temperature.  Recently  a  rotary  furnace  has 
been  installed  in  Chicago  which  is  not  only  fired 
by  gas,  but  the  gas  also  acts  as  the  carburizer — 
and  no  boxes. 

There   is    really    no    branch    of    industrial 


132        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

activity  which  is  not  in  one  way  or  another 
*^  going  to  gas."  Why?  Because  modern  gas 
engineering  has  perfected  automatic  and  abso- 
lute temperature  control.  Combustion  engineers 
have  studied  and  applied  radiant  energy  from 
highly  heated  surfaces  in  "surface  combustion" 
types  of  furnaces.  Single  pipe  systems  have 
been  devised  whereby  gas  is  delivered  to  the 
oven  or  furnace  premixed  with  the  exact  amount 
of  air  to  burn  it  completely  and  efficiently.  Re- 
generative and  recuperative  furnaces  have  been 
improved.  In  fact,  recent  advances  in  gas  en- 
gineering have  made  it  possible  to  apply  gas  in 
the  industries  for  purposes  never  before  thought 
of. 

Gas  is  "  always  on  tap."  Whether  needed  to 
warm  the  baby's  milk  at  3  A.  M.  or  to  melt  tons 
of  metal  at  midday,  gas  service  is  ready  to  serve 
2i\.  any  time,  day  or  night. 

Faithful  performance  in  years  past  has  estab- 
lished for  gas  service  a  reputation  of  depend- 
ability so  that  to  this  day  gas  is  always  used  in 
"Exit"  lights  in  churches,  schools,  public  halls, 
theaters,  and  wherever  people  assemble. 


Gas  Service  —  Gro icing  Giant  in  Industry   133 

Next  to  dependability,  comes  the  convenience 
of  gas  service. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  who  live  in  cities  can- 
not dress  in  the  morning,  eat  breakfast,  or  read 
a  newspaper  without  being  indebted  somewhere 
to  the  "  Gas  Fairy  "  for  the  convenience.  We 
once  heard  a  '^  gas  man  "  give  a  lecture  in  which 
he  showed  that  everything  he  wore  had  been 
made  with  the  aid  of  gas,  either  directly  or  in- 
directly. 

No  young  lady  enjoys  a  soda,  box  of  candy, 
a  movie,  or  an  automobile  ride  to  which  this 
"  Fairy  "  or  the  "  Giant  Genie,"  gas,  has  not  con- 
tributed its  portion  of  service. 


CHAPTER   IX 

A  CITY  BEAUTIFUL  WITHIN  TWENTY  YEARS 

Earth  has  not  anything  to  show  more  fair: 

Dull  would  he  be  of  soul  who  could  pass  by 

A  sight  so  touching  in  its  majesty: 

This  City  now  doth,  like  a  garment j  wear 

The  beauty  of  the  morning;    silent,  bare, 

Ships,  toiuers,  domes,  theatres,  and  temples  lie 

Open  unto  the  fields,  and  to  the  sky; 

All  light  and  glittering  in  the  smokeless  air. 

Wordsworth — Upon  Westminster  Bridge. 

WHEN  Winsor  organized  the  National 
Light  &  Heat  Company  he  firmly  be- 
lieved that  the  new  mode  of  lighting  and  heat- 
ing would  bring  about  the  entire  abolition  of 
smoke  and  consequently  of  chimney  sweeping; 
that  an  investment  of  £5  would  return  to  the 
subscriber  an  income  of  £570  a  year;  also  that 
the  national  debt  of  England  could  be  paid  of?, 
and  a  large  revenue  raised  by  a  government  tax 
upon  products  obtainable  from  coal.  Large 
sums  of  money  were  subscribed  to  accomplish 
these  objects,  but  the  brilliant  hopes  of  Winsor 

134 


A  City  Beautiful  within  Twenty  Years      135 

evaporated  into  thin  air  and  it  is  believed  that 
he  died  a  poor  man. 

Winsor  realized  the  possibilities  of  gas.  He 
had  a  vision,  but  nowhere  yet  has  it  been  at- 
tained.    Said  he: 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  world  mankind  has  lost  above 
80  per  cent  in  all  combustibles  by  the  mere  evaporation  of 
smoke.  This  very  smoke  which  often  proves  troublesome 
and  dangerous  to  health  and  houses,  is  no\y  discovered  to 
contain  the  most  valuable  substances  —  oil,  pitch,  acid,  coke, 
and  gas;  which  latter  product  not  only  furnishes  the  most 
intense  heat,  and  the  purest  light,  whenever  it  is  wanted,  but 
can  also  be  applied  to  supersede  the  dangerous  and  expensive 
steam  engines. 

There's  hardly  a  thing  that  man  may  name 
Of  use  or  beauty  in  life's  small  game. 
But  you  can  extract  in  alembic  or  jar 
From  the  "physical  basis"  of  black  coal-tar: 
Oil  and  ointment,  and  wax  and  ivine. 
And  the  lovely  colors  called  aniline; 
You  can  make  anything  from  a  salve  to  a  star. 
If  you  only  know  how,  from  black  coal-tar, 

—  Punch. 

A  gas  expert  recently  stated  that  within 
twenty  years  American  cities  could  be  made 
smokeless,  sootless,  and  spotless  if  gas  were  uni- 
versally adopted  for  fuel.  The  great  cost  of 
smoke  and  soot  to  modern  cities  is  not  fully 
realized. 


136        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

A  few  years  ago  some  one  estimated  that  the 
people  of  Chicago  suffer  yearly  a  damage  of 
about  fifty  million  dollars  from  smoke.  That  is 
a  pretty  huge  yearly  loss,  nearly  twenty  dollars 
for  each  person  living  in  that  city  to  pay  for  the 
*^  black  genie  lurking  in  the  chimney." 

In  1911  the  Chicago  Association  of  Com- 
merce, realizing  the  great  harm  to  its  citizens 
and  property  due  to  smoke,  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  study  the  problem  of  smoke  abatement 
and  electrification  of  railroads.  After  five 
years  of  study  by  engineers  a  report,  in  1915, 
costing  $500,000  was  published  which  set  forth 
the  results  of  the  investigation. 

These  were  in  brief: 

1.  Cost  of  electrifying  railroads  would  be  about  $274,- 

440,630,  but 

2.  Steam  locomotives  were  guilty  of  only  a  small  part  of 

the  damaging  smoke,  and  the 

3.  Eh'mination  of  this  part  (4.25  per  cent)  would  pro- 

duce hardly  noticeable  results. 

Their  report  reviewed  all  the  literature  on  the 
smoke  problem  and  exploded  a  popular  fallacy 
by  pointing  out  that  the  "visibility  of  smoke, 
which  has  been  the  sole  object  of  complaint  and 


A  City  Beautiful  within  Twenty  Years      137 

regulation,  is  a  matter  of  secondary  importance; 
that  injury  to  animal  and  vegetable  life  and  to 
property  is  due  almost  wholly  to  the  invisible 
gases  and  solids  emitted  and  this  is  the  big  thing 
to  be  overcome." 

According  to  the  report: 

High  pressure  steam  plants  were  found  to  produce  44.49 
per  cent  of  all  visible  smoke  emitted  within  the  city  limits. 
Metallurgical  and  other  manufacturing  furnaces  produce 
28.63  per  cent;  steam  locomotives,  22.06  per  cent;  and 
domestic  fires,  3.93  per  cent  (from  15  to  20  per  cent  during 
three  winter  months). 

Of  the  total  solids  in  smoke,  metallurgical  and  similar 
furnaces  are  guilty  of  contributing  64.26  per  cent;  high 
pressure  steam  plants  19.34  per  cent;  domestic  fires  8.60 
per  cent;  and  steam  locomotives  7.47  per  cent. 

Of  the  total  gaseous  pollution  of  the  air  44.96  per  cent 
is  due  to  high  pressure  steam  plants,  23  per  cent  to  domestic 
fires,  21.13  per  cent  to  metallurgical  and  other  furnaces,  and 
10.31  per  cent  to  steam  locomotives.  Steam  vessels  and  gas 
and  coke  plants  produce  negligible  quantities  of  smoke. 

The  per  capita  for  consumption  of  coal  in 
Chicago  was  8.3  tons,  which  was  larger  than  for 
any  other  city. 

Other  American  cities  have  tried  to  solve  the 
smoke  nuisance  —  Pittsburgh,  Salt  Lake  City, 
and  New  York.  These  and  many  smaller  cities 
are  still  more  or  less  cursed  by  the  Evil  Genie  — 
Smoke. 


138         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

"  More  persons  are  devitalized,  disabled  and 
poisoned  by  the  impurities  contained  in  smoke- 
polluted  air,  than  by  the  noxious  ingredients  in 
food  and  water." 

The  truth  is  that  smoke  has  been  a  bothersome 
problem  for  every  people.  But  it  grew  more  and 
more  aggravating  as  the  use  of  coal  increased. 
A  few  cities  have  partially  solved  it  by  forbid- 
ding the  burning  of  soft  coal. 

In  Great  Britain  coal  was  being  mined  about 
the  tenth  century.  London  declared  war  on  the 
smoke  nuisance  in  1273  by  passing  a  statute 
prohibiting  its  use  within  the  city.  And  again 
in  1306,  Edward  I  issued  a  restraining  proclama- 
tion because  of  the  '^  sulferous  smoke  and  savour 
of  the  firing." 

In  1307  a  commission  was  appointed  and  in- 
structed to  inquire  "  of  all  such  who  burn  sea 
coal  in  the  city,  or  parts  adjoining,  and  to  punish 
them  for  the  first  offense  with  great  fines  and 
ransoms  and  upon  the  second  offense  to  demolish 
their  furnaces."  A  royal  decree  was  issued  pro- 
hibiting its  use,  but  as  wood  grew  scarcer  it  was 
disregarded  and  the  prejudice  wore  off. 


A  City  Beautiful  within  Twenty  Years      139 

In  1648  the  people  of  London  petitioned 
Parliament  to  prevent  the  importation  of  coal 
into  the  city. 

About  the  year  1750,  when  steam  was  being 
applied  to  industrial  purposes,  coal  began  to  be 
used  more  and  more  extensively,  and  conse- 
quently smoke  became  more  abundant  and 
troublesome.  The  last  patent  issued  to  James 
Watt  (July  9,  1785)  was  a  device  which  was 
intended  to  prevent  black  smoke. 

In  1819  William  Brunton  at  the  Eagle  Foun- 
dry in  Birmingham  was  granted  a  patent  for  a 
coking  stoker  with  a  horizontal  circular  grate  — 
the  first  practical  mechanical  stoker  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  Therefore,  over  a  hundred 
years  ago  the  principles  of  combustion  and  the 
prevention  of  smoke  were  understood  and 
applied,  but  without  much  success. 

In  1819  the  British  Government  appointed  a 
committee  in  the  House  of  Commons  to  investi- 
gate the  smoke  situation;  another  committee  was 
appointed  in  1843,  1846,  1854,  and  1866.  Re- 
ports were  issued  in  1843  and  1845,  but  no  legis- 
lation passed.     In  1875  the  Public  Health  Act 


140         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

was  passed  to  deal  with  this  question  —  which 
was  really  a  serious  one  as  evidenced  by  the 
number  of  investigations  made. 

Queen  Elizabeth  prohibited  the  burning  of 
coal  in  London  while  Parliament  was  in  session 
because  the  health  of  "the  knights  of  the 
shires  might  suffer  during  their  abode  in  the 
Metropolis."  Evelyn  says  that  musical  friends 
of  his  who  came  to  London  actually  lost  three 
whole  notes  in  range  of  their  voices. 

Although  several  commissions  have  attacked 
the  smoke  problem  and  numerous  anti-smoke 
devices  were  invented  and  installed,  London  is 
still  suffering  greatly  from  the  smoke  nuisance, 
which  is  largely  aggravated  by  its  fogs.  The 
London  medical  officer  of  health  stated,  in  his 
report  for  1915-16,  that  about  55  tons  of  soot, 
grit,  and  dust  fell  every  month  in  London. 

Pittsburgh's  soot  deposit  has  been  placed  at 
from  600  to  2,000  tons  a  square  mile  yearly 
according  to  a  report  of  the  Mellon  Institute. 
The  same  authority  says:  "  The  annual  loss  in 
Pittsburgh  to  fuel  users  alone  in  imperfect  com- 
bustion, amounts  to  more  than  $1,500,000." 


A  City  Beautiful  within  Twenty  Years      141 

Mr.  John  W.  McLusky,  engineer  and  man- 
ager of  the  Glasgow  Gas  Department,  in  a  paper 
treating  of  the  hygiene  of  gas  heating,  said  that 
observations  carried  out  by  the  Coal  Smoke 
Abatement  Society  showed  that  ten  years  ago 
61,000  tons  of  solid  matter  were  deposited 
annually  from  the  atmosphere  in  the  city  of 
London,  and  the  latest  statistics  of  the  Govern- 
ment's Advisory  Committee  on  Atmospheric 
Pollution  recorded  a  deposit  for  the  year  ending 
March,  1916,  of  about  55,000  tons,  and  for  1920 
of  about  40,000  tons.  A  very  large  proportion 
of  this  deposit  is  wasted  carbonaceous  matter 
which  has  its  origin  mainly  in  the  domestic  coal 
fire  and  kitchen  grate.  Glasgow  has  a  propor- 
tionate deposit  amounting  in  1920  to  about  370 
tons  per  square  mile  as  registered  in  Richmond 
Park  by  the  special  instruments  of  the  Govern- 
ment's Committee. 

No  vv^onder  collars,  clothes,  and  streets  become 
dirty  quickly.  Smoke  and  soot  also  do  great 
damage  to  household  furnishings,  curtains, 
draperies,  wall  paper,  paint,  and  even  stone, 
iron,  and  steel  structures. 


142        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

A  gas  engineer  of  The  People's  Gas  Light  & 
Coke  Company  stated  that  if  every  person  in 
Chicago  would  contribute  $5  to  a  smoke  abate- 
ment fund  the  greatest  advance  for  making 
Chicago  a  ^'City  Beautiful"  could  be  made  at 
once.  The  Chicago  report  quoted  from  before 
says  that: 

The  Committee  finds  that  domestic  fires,  including  fur- 
naces in  apartment  buildings,  produce  57  per  cent  of  all  the 
soot  or  tarry  products  of  combustion  discharged  in  the 
atmosphere  of  Chicago,  and,  for  this  reason,  constitute  the 
most  objectionable  source  of  atmospheric  pollution  in  the  city. 
Soot  is  shown  to  be  damaging  to  clothes,  property,  and 
vegetation. 

The  committee  forgot,  however,  to  empha- 
size the  damage  done  to  the  health  of  2,701,705 
people.  To  every  inhabitant  of  Chicago  the 
saving  in  clothes,  health  and  property,  now 
damaged  by  smoke,  would  easily  be  worth  $5 
every  year  if  coal  and  oil  fires  were  changed  to 
gas  fires. 

The  cost  to  Pittsburgh  families  for  increased 
laundry,  dry  cleaning,  painting  and  decorating, 
extra  light  and  general  cleaning  has  been  esti- 
mated to  average  about  $100  a  year  for  each 
family. 


A  City  Beautiful  within  Twenty  Years      143 

The  smoke  nuisance  is  the  greatest  hindrance  to  the  high- 
est development  of  civic  beauty  and  refinement.  It  defaces, 
disfigures  or  destroys  buildings  and  restricts  the  styles  of 
architecture.  Smoke  not  only  destroys  the  life  of  building 
materials,  but  destroys  the  expression  of  architecture  so  that 
the  buildings  are  reduced  to  a  shabby  mass  of  begrimed 
masonry. 

We  know  that  smoke  is  the  result  primarily 
of  improper  burning  of  soft  coal;  that  house 
chimneys  produce  the  most  smoke;  that  smoke 
prevention  appliances  —  though  easily  adapted 
to  factories  —  are  not  very  practical  for  homes; 
that  central  heating  plants,  because  of  the  sea- 
sonal nature  of  heating  requirements,  great 
radiation  losses,  and  large  capital  involved,  v^ill 
not  solve  the  smoke  problem.  Neither  will 
zoning — the  confining  of  future  building  de- 
velopment to  types  of  districts.  Since  smoke- 
belching  chimneys  are  no  longer  an  index  of  in- 
dustrial efficiency  and  prosperity,  therefore, 
every  public-spirited  citizen  should  use  a  smoke- 
less fuel,  either  coke  or  gas  for  cooking  and 
heating,  install  the  best  fuel  appliances,  and 
learn  to  use  these  efficiently. 

If  the  inhabitants  could  be  sufficiently  inter- 
ested in   a  Community  Betterment  Plan,   gas- 


144         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

burning  appliances  would  gradually  be  installed 
throughout  the  city.  The  air  would  become 
pure,  the  atmosphere  clear,  and  the  streets, 
buildings,  and  interiors  clean  and  habitable. 
Both  health  and  wealth  would  be  greatly  fur- 
thered by  a  universal  use  of  gas. 

But  decreased  laundry  bills,  less  soot  and 
smoke  and  noxious  gases  in  the  air,  and  a  more 
beautiful  city  are  not  the  only  advantages  that 
the  use  of  gas  is  bringing  to  individuals  and  to 
communities  —  the  universal  use  of  gas  is  imper- 
ative from  the  viewpoint  of  national  economy. 
In  any  heating  installation,  gas  delivers  several 
times  as  much  of  the  energy  originally  in  the 
coal  as  will  any  other  method  of  utilizing  the 
coal. 

A  small  steam  power  plant  seldom  delivers 
in  mechanical  energy  more  than  5  per  cent  of 
the  energy  of  the  coal  fired  —  and  many  of  these 
plants  deliver  less  than  2  per  cent  of  the  original 
energy  of  the  coal.  Contrast  this  with  the  14 
per  cent,  or  more,  of  the  coal  converted  into 
mechanical  energy  by  first  making  the  coal  into 
gas.    Then,  too,  in  heating  and  stationary  power 


A  City  Beautiful  within  Twenty  Years      145 

plants,  gas  is  a  more  flexible  fuel  than  oil  and 
gasoline  and  would  release  millions  of  barrels 
of  oil  yearly.  This  would  extend  our  mineral 
oil  resources  years  beyond  the  present  estimate 
of  twenty  years,  by  using  gas  from  coal,  of  which 
we  have  in  the  ground  a  supply  to  last  at  least 
two  hundred  years. 

This  two  hundred  year  supply  of  coal  —  some 
optimist  estimated  it  at  three  thousand  years  — 
can  be  made  to  last  much  longer  if  it  is  first  con- 
verted into  gas  for  heating.  Some  seem  to 
think  that  electricity  will  soon  be  the  heating 
agent.  Electricity  has  many  advantages  over 
coal  and  oil  and  in  a  few  cases  may  have  some 
over  gas,  but  in  the  long  run  as  a  heating  tool 
electricity  is  more  expensive. 

A  natural  gas  engineer  has  made  some  very 
interesting  comparisons  as  to  the  cost  of  heating 
with  gas  and  with  electricity. 

He  estimated  that  there  are  6,000,000  homes 
in  the  United  States  that  are  wired  for  electric- 
ity. If  all  these  houses  used  electricity  for  both 
cooking  and  heating,  it  would  require  yearly 
750,000,000  tons  of  coal — which  is  more  coal 


146        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

than  is  mined  yearly  in  the  United  States  and 
twenty  times  more  than  now  used  by  electric 
plants  to  generate  electricity. 

At  present,  gas  companies  are  using  about 
9,000,000  tons  of  coal  yearly;  and  to  furnish 
6,000,000  homes  with  fuel  for  cooking  and  heat- 
ing would  require  only  about  62,000,000  tons 
which  is  quite  a  saving  in  comparison  with  750,- 
000,000  tons  by  electricity. 

Besides  this  economy  in  coal  there  is,  accord- 
ing to  the  same  authority,  another  great  saving 
in  the  cost  of  additional  electric  equipment- — 
which  would  require  a  capacity  of  150,000,000 
kilowatt  hours  or  seven  times  the  present  one  of 
20,000,000  kilowatt. 

Evidently  there  is  plenty  of  work  yet  for  both 
services  —  gas  for  heating  and  electricity  for 
power  —  without  unnecessarily  wasting  coal 
through  competition  for  the  heating  load. 

That  there  is  a  big  field  for  eliminating  fuel 
waste  can  readily  be  seen  from  a  tabulation 
which  appeared  in  the  Coal  Age  of  November 
11,  1920. 

Of  the  2,000  pounds  of  coal  in  a  mine: 


A  City  Beautiful  'Within  Twenty  Years      147 

Pounds. 

Left  for  pillars  and  extraction 600 

Consumed  in  the  mining  process 31 

Reduction  of  steam  for  transporting  the  coal  mined ....   82 

Lost   by  shrinkage    13 

Lost  due  to  improper  combustion 446 

Lost  by  radiation  of  heat 51 

Lost  in  the  ashpit 51 

Conversion  of  heat  into  mechanical  energy  (steam)  .  .  .650 

Total,    1,924 
Only  76  out  of  2,000  pounds  actually  go  into  mechanical 
energy. 

These  estimated  figures  on  coal  economy  and 
waste  are  given  here  to  stimulate  serious  thought 
on  conservation  of  fuel. 

The  world's  power  and  heat  will  in  all  prob- 
ability depend  for  many  future  generations  upon 
''  black  diamond "  coal.  Water-power  often 
called  "white  coal,"  is  plentiful  but  very  expen- 
sive to  get.  Tidal  waves  and  steam  from  vol- 
c-anoes  as  harnessed  in  Italy  to  a  turbine  produc- 
ing 30,000  horse-power  are  unique  but  rare 
sources  of  energy. 

Another  national  economy  that  is  being  intro- 
duced by  the  gas  industry  is  the  complete  gasi- 
fication of  coal  and  a  decrease  in  the  amount  of 
oil  used  in  the  carbureted  water-gas  process. 


148        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Each  year  more  and  more  of  the  heat  energy  of 
coal  is  being  made  available  by  increased 
efficiency  and  better  processes  in  the  gas  indus- 
try. And  combustion  engineers  claim  that  a 
*'  leaner  "  gas  can  be  burned  more  efficiently  than 
the  so-called  ''  richer  "  gas  of  a  few  years  ago. 

The  economy  of  converting  coal  into  gas  is 
apparent  from  the  products  obtained  when  one 
ton  is  distilled  in  a  modern  by-product  coke- 
oven  wherein  one  ton  of  coal  yields  one  ton  of 
products.  Thus  2,000  pounds  of  coal  yield 
1,400  pounds  of  smokeless  fuel  (coke)  ;  12,000 
cubic  feet  of  gas;  25  pounds  of  ammonia  sul- 
phate; iJ/$  gallons  of  benzol  (for  high  explo- 
sives and  motor  fuel)  ;  and  9  gallons  of  tar. 
These  products  have  a  total  value  at  least 
fifteen  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  original  ton 
of  raw  coal. 

Contrary  to  public  belief,  gas  causes  less  fire 
loss  than  any  other  fuel.  Statistics  compiled  by 
the  Actuarial  Bureau  of  the  National  Board  of 
Fire  Underwriters  show  that  gas  does  not  cause 
one-seventh  the  loss  that  matches  and  smoking 
do. 


A  City  Beautiful  within  Twenty  Years      149 


•    FIRE   LOSS   IN    UNITED   STATES 

5-Year  Yearly 

Cause  Period  Average 
1.     Unknown  causes   (probably     1916-1920 

largely  preventable)   . .  .$442,423,079  $88,484,615 

2.  Exposure    (including    con- 

flagrations)      232,888,419  46,577,683 

3.  Matches  and  smoking 90,271,334  18,054,266 

4.  Electricity 85,735,168  17,147,033 

5.  Stoves,      furnaces,     boilers 

and  their  pipes 63,324,07'  12,664,814 

6.  Defective     chimne3^s     and 

flues  61,975,786  12,395,157 

7.  Spontaneous    combustion..  61,192,591  12,238,518 

8.  Lightning    48,563,955  9,712,791 

9.  Sparks  on  roofs 41,667,246  8,333,449 

10.  Sparks  from  machineiy. . .  39,673,406  7,934,681 

11.  Petroleum  and  its  products  33,973,457  6,794,691 

12.  Miscellaneous  knowncauses  25,832,124  5,166,424 

13.  Sparks  from  combustion..  25,051,580  5,010,316 

14.  Incendiarism   16,628,095  3,325,619 

15.  Open  lights 16,287,028  3,257,405 

16.  Hot  ashes  and  coals,  open 

fires    15,563,630  3,112,726 

17.  Gas,  natural  and  manufac- 

tured      12,776,382  2,555,276 

18.  Explosions 10,342,225  2,068,445 

19.  Ignition  of  hot  grease,  oil, 

tar,  wax,  asphalt,  etc. . .  6,262,261  1,252,452 

20.  Rubbish  and  litter.  ......  3,751,974  750,394 

21.  Steam  and  hot  water  pipes  2,066,832  413,366 

22.  Fireworks,     fire     crackers, 

etc 1,927,499  385,499 


Total $1,338,178,142  $267,635,620 


*The  Bureau  estimates  that  25  per  cent  should  be  added 
to  this  total  to  account  for  losses  not  reported. 


150        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

If  the  total  amount  lost  in  the  five  years,  $1,672,722,677, 
had  been  used  constructively  instead  of  being  literally  thrown 
away,  the  sum  would  have  built  334,540  dwellings,  costing 
on  the  average  $5,000  each,  thus  supplying  homes  for 
1,672,720  people.  This  exceeds  the  total  population  of  Con- 
necticut, Nevada,  and  Wyoming. 

Or,  it  would  have  constructed  16,727  school  houses,  cost- 
ing $100,000  apiece. 

The  total  given  is  terrific  enough,  in  itself,  but  when  it  is 
compared  with  certain  other  financial  items,  the  picture  stag- 
gers belief.  The  sum  exceeds,  for  example,  the  value  of  the 
entire  gold  production  of  the  United  States  during  the  nine- 
teen years  from  1902  to  1920,  inclusive.  It  equals,  in  value, 
16,727  grams  of  radium,  the  costliest  of  earth's  products. — 
Safeguarding  America  Against  Fire^  January,  1922,  issue. 

When  coal  is  burned  in  the  open  air  nothing 
is  left  but  a  small  amount  of  ashes.  When  heat- 
ed in  a  closed  vessel  where  the  oxygen  of  the 
air  cannot  reach  it,  carbon  or  coke  is  left  after 
all  the  gas  has  been  driven  off.  Gas  and  coke 
are  thus  the  two  main  products  of  this  process, 
which  is  called  "  destructive  distillation  of 
coal." 

As  the  gas  escapes  it  is  cooled  off,  washed, 
and  purified  so  that  tar,  ammonia,  sulphur,  etc., 
are  removed  from  it.  The  extent  of  distillation 
and  purification  depends  upon  what  product  is 
most  wanted:  If  illuminating  gas,  the  benzine 
is  left  in  the  gas;  if  tar  products,  the  benzine  is 


A  Citv  Beautiful  within  Twenty  Years       151 

taken  out;  if  coke,  the  by-products  of  tar, 
ammonia,  and  light  oils  are  allowed  to  burn  up. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  $75,000,000  worth 
of  by-products  are  burned  up  yearly  by  the  old- 
fashioned  bee-hive  coke-ovens.  You  can  ima- 
gine what  a  display  of  fire-works  hundreds  of 
these  gas-burning  ovens  produce  on  a  dark 
night. 

For  years  and  years  the  gas  works  used  to 
burn  up  or  throw  away  in  the  river  a  smelly 
mass  which,  unless  removed  from  the  gas, 
stopped  up  mains  and  service  pipes.  The  wasted 
tar  was  later  used  in  celebrating  the  Fourth  of 
July  and  for  roofing  paper. 

This  tar  is  today  the  most  harmful  and  at  the 
same  time  the  most  useful  material  in  the  world 
for  it  is  used  in  both  warfare  and  in  trade. 
From  this  black  ill-smelling  mass  the  chemist 
produces  colors  that  eclipse  the  blue  of  the  sky, 
the  red  of  the  rose,  the  green  of  the  grass,  the 
golden  yellow  of  the  sunset,  in  fact,  that  rival 
the  rainbow  in  hues. 

It  was  in  order  to  supply  us  with  these  colors 
that  the  Deutschland  made  its  under-sea  voyage 


152        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

to  Baltimore,  landing  July  10,  1916,  with  a 
cargo  of  priceless  chemicals  and  dyes.  From 
coal  tar  is  derived  a  substance  which  has  a 
sweetening  power  more  than  five  hundred  times 
that  of  sugar,  and  innumerable  other  substances, 
some  deadly,  some  curative,  and  many  which 
are  today  indispensable  both  in  the  home  and  in 
industry. 

You  remember  that  some  of  the  alchemists  of 
old  claimed  that  the  crude  products  of  coal 
possessed  medicinal  qualities.  Bishop  Berkeley 
wrote  a  book  to  prove  that  wood  tar  would  cure 
all  diseases.  Coal  tar  contains  only  about  a 
dozen  primary  products,  but  from  these  the 
chemist  is  able  to  build  up  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  new  substances.  Here  are  a  few  sam- 
ples: perfume  and  poison  gas;  headache  reme- 
dies and  paint;  explosives  and  fertilizers;  moth 
balls  and  photographic  developers;  flavoring 
materials  and  carbolic  acid. 

The  search  itself  rewards  the  pains: 

So  though  the  chymist  his  great  secret  miss. 

For  neither  it  in  art  nor  nature  is. 

Yet  things  well  worth  his  toil  he  gains. 

And  does  his  charge  and  labor  pay 

With  good  unsought  experience  by  the  way. 


Products  Chived  from  Coal 


I  Gas  I  |Ga5Liqoor| 


l—IP-y-FIF^kll^ 


\a...u  [InJiJ^rnt^LtL.! 


PE^ 


I  LlOHT  Oil  I 


J „    I    „    I   zx 


IheavyOilI 


I  Pitch   | 


^ 


3       |c.„o.«...|p;^,c,L||o-....c,.,|[rW7 


[d^nnrF^F^F^^y^F;^^ 


,0^    ^ 


!?■■■•■--.■■  I  rsfen  I  ->-!■-  ii^~~.  I 


.^:i 


[^ 


^^ 


-|i».-»;.'...|i^«-..^-^-.|i—J"'    ir 


c;;^ 


r 


A  City  Beautiful  unthin  Twenty  Years       153 

It  is  chemistry  that  has  made  the  gas  industry 
so  fascinating  and  vigorous,  and  is  rapidly  mak- 
ing gas  the  Aladdin  or  the  ally  of  all  industries. 

The  rapidly  growing  demands  for  fuels  are 
making  conservation  of  our  national  resources 
more  and  more  important  every  year.  Since 
the  burning  of  coal  in  the  home,  in  the  factory, 
and  in  the  bee-hive  coke-oven  is  not  only  a  crim- 
inal waste  but  also  a  menace  to  health  and  prop- 
erty, that  method  should  not  be  permitted  in 
this  enlightened  age.  Individuals  and  indus- 
tries should  cooperate  in  keeping  cities  clean 
and  healthful  and  also  in  making  it  profitable 
for  chemists  to  develop  the  by-products  derived 
from  coal  in  the  manufacture  of  gas. 

From  the  preceding  we  see  that  the  gas  indus- 
try is  today  an  intensely  interesting  and  also  an 
extremely  important  one.  In  importance  it 
rivals  the  steel  industry,  for  it  too  is  a  necessity 
in  industries  during  peace  and  the  backbone  of 
military  operations  in  times  of  war.  It  is  in- 
deed a  strategic  industry,  and  its  products 
should  therefore  be  developed  with  the  greatest 
foresight   and   patience  so   that  America  may 


154         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

never  again  be  at  the  mercy  of  a  foreign  coun- 
try for  dyes,  medicinal  materials,  and  explosives 
for  defense. 

"  In  peace,  and  even  in  war,  chemistry  paints 
the  whole  picture  of  progress." — A.  Mitchell 
Palmer,  Former  U,  S,  Alien  Property  Custo- 
dian. 


CHAPTER  X 


"semper  fidelis" 


Fear  not  to  go  tvhere  fearless  Science  leads. 
Who  holds  the  keys  of  God. 

— W.  T.  Richards. 

THIS  Story  has  set  forth  briefly  the  begin- 
nings and  progress  of  an  industry  which 
has  the  unique  distinction  of  being  old  yet  ever 
new.  It  is  old  when  the  years  of  its  service  are 
compared  with  those  of  other  public  utilities, 
and  new  when  the  field  of  its  ever-growing 
influence,  usefulness,  and  performance  is  fully 
considered. 

We  are  indebted  to  the  ancient  alchemists  and 
to  sturdy  pioneers,  both  considered  with  sus- 
picion, for  a  partial  realization  of  an  ideal  ser- 
vice. It  remains  for  the  modern  gas  engineer 
and  the  chemist  to  make  the  realization  com- 
plete. In  doing  that,  however,  they  may  have  to 
revise  some  of  their  opinions  considerably,  even 
to  the  extent  that  the  alchemists  of  old  may  have 
been  right  after  all  in  their  contention  that  the 
baser  metals  can  be  converted  into  gold.      Wit- 

155 


156         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

ness:  The  properties  of  radium  which  threaten 
to  revolutionize  everything  we  know  about  the 
earth  below  and  the  heavens  above. 

The  history  of  the  gas  industry  everywhere 
has  been  one  of  public  service.  Very  rarely, 
indeed,  do  we  hear  of  an  interruption  in  a  gas 
supply  when  once  a  gas  plant  has  been  built. 
These  rare  instances  have  invariably  been  due 
to  conditions  which  made  it  utterly  impossible 
to  continue  business.  A  public  utility  is,  from  its 
very  nature  and  purpose,  compelled  to  supply 
service  even  at  a  loss  and  has  been  forced  to  do 
so  many  times  in  the  past.  No  private  business 
would  do  so. 

The  gas  business  has  ever  had  quite  an  ele- 
ment of  uncertainty  in  it.  Its  early  pioneers  in 
all  countries  made  practically  no  profit  from  it, 
and  yet  they  remained  true  to  their  vision.  Their 
successors  have  also  taken  a  great  pride  in  sup- 
plying, under  all  conditions,  a  service  which 
never  fails. 

Of  all  services,  therefore,  gas  has  rightly 
earned  through  past  performances,  the  name  of 
semper  fidelis  —  always  faithful. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  A 

CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  E.AJILY  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  THE  GAS 
INDUSTRY 

B.   C. 

4000  Paintings  on  walls  of  tombs  portray  Eg>^ptians  pre- 
paring meals. 
2000-1200  First  bathroom  built,  discovered  on  the  Island  of 

Crete  in  the  ruins  of  the  city  of  Cnosus. 
1600  Paintings  of  royal  bakery  and  kitchen  of  Rameses  in. 

illustrate  boiling  in  pots  and  frying  on  griddles. 
1450  First  artificial  lighting  by  ''fire-pans"  or  "censers." 
750  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  bas-reliefs  of  camp-life  show 
cooking  over  small  brazier,  and  baking  in  a  cylin- 
drical oven. 
500  Oil  lamps  first  used. 
400  Saint  Jerome  relates  that  some  streets  in  Jerusalem 

and  Antioch  were  lighted  at  night. 
300  Earliest  mention   of  coal   by   the   Greek  philosopher 

Theophrastus. 
100  Sergius  Orata  invented  hypocaust  —  Roman  system  of 
heating  rooms  and  baths  with  hot  air. 

A.   D. 

852  First  mention  of  coal  In  England;    contained  in  the 
Saxon  Chronicle  of  the  Abbey  of  Petersborough. 

1000  Coal  began  to  replace  wood  and  charcoal. 

1127  "Order  of  the  Bath"  established  by  Henry  i.  of  Eng- 
land. 

1180  Coal  first  mined  systematically  in  England. 

1250  Coal  became  a  commercial  commodity. 

1259  King  Henry  in.  granted  charter  to  mine  coal  in  New- 
castle. 

1272  Coal  used  in  London. 

1316  A  royal  proclamation  issued  forbidding  the  use  of  coal 

in  London  on  account  of  the  "  noisome  smell." 

159 


160        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

1415  First  regular  street  lighting  in  London. 

1490  First  base-burning  stove  used  in  Alsace. 

1500  About  1500  Brazil  Valentine  discovered  muriatic,  sul- 
phuric, and  nitric  acids. 

1500  Forks  in  use  in  Italy. 

1509  Box  stoves  made  of  cast  iron  in  Ilsenberg. 

1541  About  this  time  Paracelsus  discovered  hydrogen  gas. 

1560  Special  licenses  granted  to  make  charcoal  and  smelt 
iron. 

1580  Use  of  coal  prohibited  by  Queen  Elizabeth  in  London 
while  Parliament  was  in  session,  because  "  the  health 
of  the  knights  of  the  shires  might  suffer  during  their 
abode  in  the  Metropolis." 

1608  London  company  sent  eight   Poles  and   Germans   to 

Jamestown  Settlement  to  make  pitch,  tar,  glass,  and 
soap-ashes  —  the  beginning  of  the  American  Chemi- 
cal industry. 

1609  Van  Helmont  settled  in  Brussels  and  gave  the  name 

of  "Gas"  (from  "Geist,"  meaning  ghost  or  spirit) 
to  the  aeriform  bodies  produced  by  combustion  and 
by  fermentation. 

1611   Forks  introduced  in  England. 

1624  In  Louvre  a  fireplace  was  built  with  air  passages  at 
sides. 

1635  Hooke,  the  inventor  of  watches,  first  to  study  com- 
bustion. 

1645  British  Royal  Society  formed  (constitution  adopted 
1662). 

1659  Thomas  Shirley  investigated  a  natural  gas  well  in 
Lancashire,  England,  and  wrote  the  first  description 
of  experiments  with  natural  gas  published  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  for  June,  1667. 

1662  The  use  of  coal  had  become  so  extensive  that  in  1662 
the  sum  of  £200,000  was  raised  by  means  of  a 
"Health  Tax"  imposed  on  fireplaces  by  King 
Charles  ii. 

1662  Robert  Boyle  enunciated  the  statement  known  as 
"Boyle's  Law." 


Appendly:  A  161 


1662  Abbe  Laudati  Caraffe  secured  first  concessions  for 
street  lighting  of  Paris  by  torch  bearers. 

1660-1670  Dr.  Clayton  experimented  with  natural  gas 
at  Lancashire,  England,  and  distilled  coal  to  produce 
gas,  ^yhich  he  stored  and  lighted.  An  account  of  his 
experiments  was  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the 
Royal  Society  for  1739. 

1667  September.  Paris  streets  lighted  by  candles  set  in  glass 
boxes  by  royal  decree. 

1675  Coal  distilled  for  the  production  of  tar. 

1676  Boyle's  Law  confirmed  by  ]Mariotte. 

1679  A  "coal  mine"  near  Ottawa,  III,  U.  S.  A.,  men- 
tioned by  Father  Hennepin,  a  Jesuit  missionary. 

1681  Aug.  19.  John  Joachim  and  Henry  Serle  granted  a 
patent  (No.  214)  for  14  years  for  "a  new  way  of 
making  pitch,  and  tarre  out  of  pit  coals." 

1697  First  street  lighting  ordinance  passed  in  New  York 
City. 

1700  Coal  exported  from  England  to  European  countries. 

1716  Guthsmann,  librarian  to  the  king  of  Portugal,  in- 
vented apparatus  for  baking  bread,  and  cooking 
meats  with  the  rays  of  the  sun. 

1723  Cardinal  Polignac  put  flues  at  both  sides  and  back  but 
people  objected  to  breathing  "air  that  had  passed 
through  red  hot  pipes." 

1726  Dr.  Stephen  Hales  published  "Vegetable  Statiks," 
describing  his  experiments  on  the  distillation  of  coal. 

1744  Benjamin   Franklin  constructed  the  box  stove  called 

the  Pennsylvania  fireplace. 

1745  Oil  lamps  first  used  in  Paris  streets. 

1749  Coal  mined  in  Richmond  Basin,  Virginia,  U.  S.  A. 

1754  Dr.  Joseph  Black  discovered  carbonic  acid  gas  (carbon 

dioxide). 

1755  Coal  discovered  in  Ohio,  U.  S.  A. 

1757  Franklin  suggested  four  glass  panes  for  John  Clifton^s 
tin  lantern  frames — for  street  lighting  in  Philadel- 
phia. 


162        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

1760  Theory  of  Specific  Heat  and  of  Latent  Heat,  pro- 
pounded by  Dr.  Steven  Black. 
1762  Oil  street  lamps  first  lighted  in  New  York  City. 

1765  Reflector  oil  lamps  introduced  in  Paris. 

1766  A   gold   medal   offered   by   the    French   Academy   of 

Science  as  a  prize  for  the  best  essay  on  street  light- 
ing, won  by  Lavoisier. 

1767  Hydrogen  discovered  in  water  by  Henry  Cavendish. 
1770  Joseph  Priestley  gave  "rubber"  its  name  because  it 

removed  pencil  marks. 

1774  Oxygen  discovered  by  Joseph  Priestley  in  England,  and 

by  Charles  Scheele  in  Sweden. 

1775  The    composition    of    atmospheric    air    discovered    by 

Lavoisier. 

1776  The  water  lute  (water  seal)  invented  by  Priestly. 

1777  Hot  water  sj^stem  invented  by  Bonnemain;   first  used 

for  incubators. 
1781  A  patent  granted  to  the  Earl  of  Dundonald  for  dis- 
tilling coal.     All  the  products  of  distillation  were 
mentioned  except  gas. 

1781  The  gas  holder  invented  by  Lavoisier. 

1782  Argand  invented  "Argand  lamp." 

1784  James  Watt  heated  his  study  by  steam.    . 

1784  Jean  Pierre  Minckelers  lighted  gas  distilled  from  coal 

as  a  demonstration  to  his  class  in  the  University  of 

Louvain. 

1784  Murdock  constructed  a  high  pressure  engine  running 

on  wheels  (scared  village  parson  to  death). 

1785  Murdock  invented  first  oscillating  engine. 

1787  Lord  Dundonald  lighted  up  Culross  Abbey  with  pat- 

ented process  for  obtaining  coal  tar. 

1788  Diller,  a  German,  exhibited  at  the  Lyceum,  Strand, 

London,  fire-works  produced  by  inflammable  gas. 
1790  Anthracite  coal  first  mined  in  Pennsylvania. 
1792  Chemical    Society   of    Philadelphia    (the   first    of    its 

kind)   founded  by  James  Woodhouse. 
1792  William  Murdock  distilled  coal  in  an  iron  retort  and 

conducted  the  gas  seventy  feet  through  tinned  iron 


Appendix  A  163 


and  copper  tubes  to  light  his  house  and  grounds  at 
Redruth  in  Cornwall. 
1796  Benjamin    Rumford    suggested    warming    rooms    by 
means  of  chimneys  —  from  which  idea  the  radiator 
developed. 

1796  August.  Manufactured  gas  exhibited  in  a  museum  in 

Philadelphia. 

1797  Murdock  lighted  with  gas  his  house  and  office  at  Old 

Comnock. 

1798  Murdock  lighted  with  gas  one  of  Boulton  and  Watt's 

shops  at  Soho,  near  Birmingham. 

1799  Murdock  invented  the  "D"  slide  valve  (used  in  steam 

engines  and  gas  meters). 

1799  September.  Philippe  Lebon  (in  France)  patented  a 
"Thermolampe"  for  the  production  of  gas  by  dis- 
tillation from  wood,  coal,  etc. 

1801  Lebon  lighted  with  gas  his  house  and  gardens  in  the 
Rue  St.  Dominique,  Paris. 

1801   Lebon  obtained  first  patent  for  gas  power. 

1801  "Lime  light"  invented  by  Robert  Hare. 

1802  April.  Murdock  gave  a  public  display  of  gas  lighting 

at  Soho  to  celebrate  the  Peace  of  Amiens. 

1803  Main  Street,  Richmond,  Va.,  was  lighted  by  a  huge 

gas  lamp  on  a  40-foot  tower. 
1803  Frederick  Albert  Winsor   began    experimenting   with 
Lebon's  gas  apparatus  at  Hyde  Park,  London. 

1803  Murdock  invented  a  steam  gun  anticipating  Perkin's 

apparatus. 

1804  Murdock  built  gas  works  and  lighted   Boulton  and 

Watt's  shops  at  Soho. 
1804  May.  Winsor  obtained  first  English  patent  for  gas- 
making  apparatus. 

1804  Winsor  gave  a  public  display  of  gas  lighting  at  the 

Lyceum  Theatre,  London. 

1805  Murdock  built  gas  works  and  lighted  the  cotton  mill 

of  Messrs.  Phillips  &  Lee  at  Manchester;   nine  hun- 
dred burners  were  supplied. 
1805  Samuel  Clegg  built  gas  works  and  lighted  the  cotton 
mill  of  Mr.  Henry  Lodge,  near  Halifax. 


164        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

1806  Edward  Heard  patented  a  process  of  using  lime  as  a 
purifier. 

1806  December.  Lead  pipes  were  laid  in  Pall  Mall,  Lon- 

don, by  Winsor — first  gas  mains  in  a  public  street. 

1807  January  28.  One  side  of  Pall  Mall  lighted  with  gas. 
1807  June  4.  Both  sides  of  Pall  Mall  lighted  with  gas. 

1807  July  12.  First  meeting  of  gas  stockholders  (proposed 

National  Light  &  Heat  Company,  London). 

1808  February  25.  Murdock  read  a  paper,  describing  the 

gas  installation  at  Phillips  &  Lee's  cotton  mill,  be- 
fore the  Royal  Society,  and  was  awarded  the  Count 
Rumford  Gold  Medal. 
1808-10  Yarn  and  lead  for  jointing  probably  invented  by 
Simpson. 

1809  May  5.  Hearingjbefore  the  House  of  Commons,  upon 

Winsor's  application  for  a  charter  for  the  "  National 
Light  &  Heat  Company."  He  was  opposed  by  Mur- 
dock and  Watt. 
1809  Clegg  wrote  a  paper  on  the  application  of  gas  lighting 
in  mills  and  factories,  and  was  awarded  a  silver 
medal  by  the  Society  of  Arts. 

1809  Wet  lime  purifier  introduced  by  Clegg  in  a  plant  to 

light  Mr.  Harris'  factory  at  Coventry. 

1810  Application  made  to  Parliament  by  Winsor  and  his 

stockholders  to  form  the  London  and  Westminster 

Gas  Light  &  Coke  Company. 
1810  Act  of  Incorporation  passed  by  Parliament  in  favor  of 

the  London  and  Westminster  Gas  Light  &  Coke 

Company. 
1812  David  Melville,  in  Newport,  R.  L,  lighted  his  house 

with  coal  gas. 
1812  April.  A  Royal  Charter  granted  to  the  London  and 

Westminster  Gas  Light  k  Coke  Company.     This 

was  the  first  gas  company  formed. 

1812  The  hydraulic  main  introduced  by  Clegg  in  a  plant 

to  light  the  cotton  mills  of  Ashton  Brothers  at  Hyde. 

1813  Clegg  became  engineer  of  London  and  Westminster 

Gas  Light  &  Coke  Company. 


Appendix  A  165 


1813  March  18.  David  Melville  obtained  a  patent  on  his 
apparatus  for  making  coal  gas. 

1813  December    31.  Westminster    Bridge    (opened    1750) 

lighted  with  gas  for  the  first  time. 

1814  April.  The  oil  street  lamps  of  St.  Margaret's  Parish, 

Westminster  were  replaced  with  gas  lamps. 

1815  December  9.  First  gas  meter  invented  by  Clegg. 
1815  December  28.  Gas  lighting  first  proposed  for  Phila- 
delphia by  Mr.  James  McMurtie. 

1815  First  treatise  on  gas  lighting  published  by  Frederick 
Accum. 

1815  Murdock  invented  an  apparatus  for  heating  water  for 

the  baths  at  Leamington  (present  hot  water  system). 

1816  Conservatory  at   Brompton,   England,   heated   by  hot 

water. 

1816  The  cylindrical  gas  holder  first  appeared,  constructed 
at  the  works  of  the  London  and  Westminster  Gas 
Light  &  Coke  Company,  under  direction  of  Samuel 
Clegg. 

1816  First  gas  company  incorporated  in  the  United  States, 
at  Baltimore,  Maryland. 
Note — June  13,  1816;  Peak's  Museum,  Baltimore, 
advertised  a  display  of  gas  lighting.  June  17,  1816: 
First  gas  company  founded  in  the  United  States,  at 
Baltimore,  Maryland,  by  passage  of  an  ordinance 
permitting  Rembrandt  Peale  and  others  to  manufac- 
ture gas,  lay  pipes  in  the  streets  and  to  contract  with 
the  city  for  street  lighting.  February  5,  1817:  Gas 
Light  Company  of  Baltimore,  the  first  gas  company 
in  America,  incorporated. 

1816  (?)  Murdock  invented  first  atmospheric  railway,  an 
extended  air  tube  for  sending  letters  and  parcels. 

1816  Clegg  invented  the  wet  meter  with  revolving  drum. 

1817  Clegg's  wet  meter  remodeled  and  improved  by  John 

Malam. 
1819  William  Brunton  invented  the  first  mechanical  stoker. 


166        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

1819  June  19.  Ed.  Heard  and  David  Gordon  obtained  a 

patent  for  compressing  gas  in  metal  drums  to  fur- 
nish a  portable  supply. 

1820  Process  of  Oil  Gas  manufacture,  patented  by  Taylor 

and  IVIartineau. 

1820  John  Malam  patented  the  first  dry  meter,  which  proved 

unsatisfactory. 

1821  Act  of  Parliament  passed,  authorizing  the  erection  of 

oil  gas  works. 

1821  April.  Oil  gas  works  built  at  Bristol,  Colchester,  Dub- 
lin, Edinburgh,  Hull,  Leith,  Liverpool,  Norwich, 
Plymouth,  and  Taunton. 

1823  Malam  patented  a  process  of  dry  lime' purifying. 

1823  The  Boston  (Massachusetts)  Gas  Light  Company  es- 

tablished. 

1824  January  19.  Broadmeadow  patented  the  exhauster. 

James    Russell    filed    patent    specifications    for    "'an 
improvement  in  the  manufacture  of  tubes  for  gas.'* 

1824  William  Congreve  patented  an  inferential  meter  de- 

pending on  time  outlet  was  open. 

1825  The  gas  governor  invented  by  Samuel  Crossley. 
1825  New  York  Gas  Light  Company  established. 
1825  Benzole  discovered  by  Faraday. 

1825  First  gas  lamps  in  Brooklyn,  New  York. 

1825  Robert  Hicks  patented  process  for  "  Heating  water  in 
baths  by  means  of  burning  carborated  hydrogen  gas 
in  chambers  in  the  bath  or  tubes  passing  through  or 
under  them." 

1825  James    Mackintosh   began   manufacture   of    garments 

waterproofed  with  rubber  made  solvent  with  a  prod- 
uct derived  from  coal  tar. 

1826  Gas  heated  lime  light  used  for  signaling. 

1828  First  gas  works  in  Boston,  Mass.,  built  on  Hull  Street. 

1829  January  1.  First  gas  lamps  in  Boston  lighted  in  Dock 

Square. 

1830  First  base-burning  stove  in  the  United  States. 

1830  Manhattan  Gas  Light  Company  established  in  New 
York. 


Appendix  A 1^ 


1830  Clegg  patented  a  dry  meter. 

1830  Lord  John  Russell,  inventor  of  a  bath  tub,  first  Eng- 
lishman to  take  "a  bath  a  day." 

1832  Meters  first  manufactured  in  the  United  States  by 
Samuel  Hill,  in  Baltimore,  Maryland. 

1832  Philo  Penfield  Stewart  began  building  cooking  stoves. 

1833  March  19.  A  dry  meter  invented  by  James  Bogardus, 

an    American    engraver,    was    patented    by    Miles 
Berry.     Defects  caused  abandonment. 
1833  Ebenezer  Goddard  invented  a  dry  meter. 

1833  October    12.  The    Telescopic    Holder    patented    by 

Hutchinson,  engineer  of  the  London  Metropolitan 
Gas  Company.  This  holder  was  invented  in  1824 
and  described  in  Creighton's  Encyclopedia. 

1834  New  Orleans  first  lighted  by  gas. 

1835  First  hot  air  furnace  built  in  Worcester,  Massachu- 

setts. 

1835  Gas  meters  manufactured  in  New  York  by  Young, 

and  in  1836  by  Samuel  Down. 

1836  Bogardus  improved  his  dry  meter. 

1836  Controversy  on  surface  combustion  between  Farady 
and  de  la  Rive  closed,  and  subject  dropped. 

1838  Discovery  of  preservation  of  wood  by  dipping  It  in 
coal-tar. 

1840  Meters  adopted  by  the  London  and  Westminster  Gas 
Light  and  Coke  Company. 

1840  Delbruck  Invented  a  burner  In  which  he  passed  one 
tube  through  the  interior  of  another — using  both 
gas  and  air. 

1842  December  20.  Adam  Thompson,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
took  "first  bath"  In  his  improved  hot  and  cold  water 
bath  tub,  made  of  mahogany,  7  feet  long,  4  feet  wide, 
lined  with  sheet  lead;   weight,  one  ton. 

1842  Edge  patented  an  Inferential  meter  measuring  part  of 

the  gas  used. 

1843  William  Richards  made  a  dry  meter  with  two  dia- 

phragms, two  slide  valves  and  a  dial,  which,  with 
minor  Improvements,  Is  the  meter  In  use  today. 


168         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

1844  Havana,  Cuba — James  Robb,  New  Orleans  banker, 
erected  gas  plant  owned  by  him  and  Queen  Mother 
of  Spain. 

1844  Croll  and  Richards  patented  an  improved  dry  meter 

which  is  the  basis  of  the  present  meter. 

1845  Von  Hofmann  separated  coal  into  a  number  of  differ- 

ent substances  (10  crudes  of  today)  by  heating  in  a 
closed  vessel. 
1845  First  buildings  heated  by  steam  in  the  United  States, 
Eastern  Hotel,  Boston ;  factory  at  Burlington  Wool- 
en Mills,  Vermont. 

1845  Boston  made  bathing  unlawful  except  upon  medical 

advice. 

1846  Gas  meters  made  legal  in  France. 

1847  Nitro-glycerine    discovered    by    Sobrero,    an    Italian 

chemist. 

1848  Constantinople  —  Sultan's    palace    and    mosques    gas 

lighted. 

1849  A  company  formed  in  Boston,  Mass.,  by  Mr.  George 

Darracott,  to  manufacture  meters. 

1849  Edwards  took  out  patent  for  "gas-fire." 

1850  James   Sharp  delivered   a  lecture  on   ''Gastronomy'* 

demonstrating  gas  cooking. 

1850  First  attempt  at  outdoor  distance  lighting  by  Profes- 
sor Klinkelfuss  at  Gottingen. 

1850  Soyer,  French  chef,  used  216  gas  jets  to  roast  a  joint 
of  meat  weighing  535  pounds — called  new  dish  a 
*'  Baron  &  Saddleback  of  Beef  a  la  Magna  Charta." 

1850-60  London  street  lamps  equipped  with  carbureting 
tanks  filled  with  light  volatile  oils  through  which  air 
passed  before  reaching  burner. 

1850  President  Fillmore  ordered  bath  tub  installed  in  the 

White  House. 

1851  George  Knowles  exhibited  a  gas  heating  stove. 

1851  Alexander    Graham,    Glasgow   hotel   proprietor,    ex- 
hibited a  gas  cooking  oven. 
1851  Davis  gas  cooking  stove  used  in  U.  S. 


Appendix  A  169 


1852  "The  Gas  Fire  Co."  incorporated  for  heating  dwell- 
ings with  gas. 
1855  Carree  invented  ammonia  absorption  machine. 

1855  Robert  Wilhelm  von  Bunsen  devised  the  burner  which 

bears  his  name  (basis  for  gas  utilization). 

1856  William  Henry  Perkin  discovered  first  coal  tar  dye  — 

mauve. 

Edward    Owen    secured    a    patent     (British)     for 

making  gas  from  brewer's  hop  waste. 

1857  Theodore  Fletcher  improved  the  bunsen  burner. 

1858  Fred  Krause  (N.  Y.)  patented  a  ''porous'*  burner  gas 

stove. 

1859  Samuel  T.  McDougal  (N.  Y.)  advertised  gas  stoves 

and  cooking  apparatus. 
1859  Gas  Generating  k  Cooking  Range  Co.   (N.  Y.)  ad- 
vertised. 

1859  Shaw's  patented  gas  cooking  stoves  advertised  (steak 
broilers,  smoothing  irons,  nurse  lamps,  bread  toasters, 
miniature  gas  furnaces,  hatter's  irons,  laundry  stoves, 
bathroom  stoves,  heating  stoves,  oyster  or  bird  roast- 
ers, gas  ovens). 

1859  H.  B.  Musgrave,  Cincinnati,  advertised  gas  cooking 
stoves. 

1859  Col.  Drake  sunk  his  first  oil  well  near  Titusville,  Pa., 
thus  the  American  petroleum  industry  was  born. 

1859  Cement  joints  in  use. 

1860  Every  first  class  hotel  in  New  York  City  had  bath 

tubs. 
1863-4  Earliest  gas  power  engine  (Lenoir  invention) — ex- 
hibited by  Goddard. 

1863  Separate  mains  for  heating  and  lighting  proposed  in 

England. 

1864  Charles  Burnham  &  Co.,   Philadelphia,  selling  Old 

Dominion  Gas  Cooking  Stove. 

1865  Turkish  bath  introduced  in  America. 

1866  Coal  gas  used  to  light  railroad  carriage  in  U.  S.  and 

Germany. 


170       The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

1866  Dynamite  discovered  by  Sir  Alfred  Nobel,  a  Swede, 
and  founder  of  the  Nobel  Peace  Prize. 

1868  Turned  and  bored  cast-iron  pipes  used. 

1870  Application  of  gas  to  generate  steam  advocated  by 
Ebenezer  Goddard. 

1870  Japan  had  one  gas  plant  (120  in  1921,  also  100  dye 

factories). 
1870-80  Pintsch  gas  patents  issued  in  U.  S. 

1871  Cubic   foot  bottle   for  measuring  gas  —  invention   of 

Hartley  &  Glover — described. 
1873  Advantages  of  coal  gas  as  heating  agent  (gas  engine, 
soldering,  brazing)  presented. 

1873  Providence,  R.  I.,  opened  first  distinctive  gas  appliance 

store. 
1873-74  Lowe  invented  carbureted  water  gas  apparatus. 

1874  August    1.  American   chemists    gather    at    Priestley's 

grave,  Northumberland,  Pa.,  to  celebrate  centennial 

of  discovery  of  oxygen. 
1874  Concrete  gasftanks  universal  in  England. 
1876  First  coffee  percolator  patented   (called  "Coffee  and 

Tea  Press"). 
1876  Royal  Baking  Powder  Co.,  baked  cakes  on  gas  stoves 

at  Centennial  Exhibition. 
1876  April  6.     Thirty-five  chemists  founded  the  American 

Chemical  Society — the  largest  in  the  world. 

1878  Outdoor  distance  lighting  problem  attempted  and  in 

some  cases  very  satisfactory. 

1879  W.  W.  Goodwin  &  Co.,  advertised  "Sun  Dial"  range 

—  first  approach  to  modern  gas  range. 

1879  American  Meter  Company  sent  a  representative  "to 
select  and  import  for  them  the  best  makes  of  French 
and  English  gas  cooking  stoves  adapted  for  use  in 
the  U.  S." 

1879  Fletcher's  gas  range,  imported  from  England,  used  in 
Oakland,  Cal. 

1881  November.  Messrs.  J.  Wright  Company,  Birming- 
ham, advertise  in  U.  S.,  solid  flame  stove. 


Appendix  A  171 


1882-83  First  inverted  incandescent  lamp  exhibited  by  Clay- 

mond. 
1883  First  platinum  basket  gas  mantle. 

1883  First  circulating  or  tank  water  heaters  appeared  in  the 

U.  S. 

1884  Gas  for  heating  bakers'  ovens,  proposed  by  W.  J.  Boer. 

1885  Incandescent  gas  mantle  invented  by  Welsbach. 

1885  First  garbage  destroyer  built  in  U.  S.,  by  army  officer. 
(Used  coal  as  fuel.) 

1885  English  patent  for  instantaneous  automatic  water 
heater. 

1885  First  patent  for  vapor  heating  applied  by  Tudor  in 
Boston. 

1885  H.  A.  Toby  patented  an  instantaneous  automatic  gas 
water  heater  with  thermostatic  control. 

1890  Bone  &  Wheeler  revive  incandescent  surface  combus- 
tion method. 

1890  Incandescent  gas  mantle  introduced  in  Nineties. 

1891  First  "up  and  down"  run  in  gas  machine  used. 
1891   First  public  baths  established  in  Chicago. 

1894  Gas  mantles  first  used  m  street  lights. 

1895  J.  C.  Beckfield  invented  an  instantaneous  gas  water 

heater  using  copper  coil  and  water  pressure  valve  to 
control  gas  flow. 

1896  Incandescent  gas  mantle  applied  to  street  lighting. 

1897  Single  copper  coil  gas  water  heater  introduced. 

1897  October.  German  chemists,  after  twenty  years'  study, 
make  artificial  indigo  from  naphthalene. 

1897  Edwin  Ruud  invented  instantaneous  gas  water  heater, 
using  copper  heating  coil  with  thermostat  to  control 
fuel  supply. 

1897  Edwin  Ruud  combined  advantages  of  water  pressure 

and  thermostatic  control  in  a  single  gas  water  heater. 

1898  Madame  Curie  discovered  radium  in  pitchblende. 

1899  Oil   gas  process   introduced   in   California  by  E.   C. 

Jones. 
1901   Blackfriars  bridge  lighted  by  high-pressure  gas. 
1904  First  display  of  successful  inverted  gas  mantle. 


172         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

1906  Platinum  sponge  exhibited   for  igniting  gas  without 

flame. 
1909  Gas  incinerator  developed. 

1909  First  meeting  of  the  Illuminating  Engineering  Society, 

London. 

1910  Madame  Curie  and  Debierne  isolated  metallic  radium 

from  its  chloride. 

1911  188,855,400  cubic   feet  gas  sold   for  gas  engines  in 

Philadelphia. 

1915  Refrigeration  by  gas   (ammonia  absorption  principle) 

introduced. 

1916  Franklin  Automobile  Co.  install  gas  for  japanning, 

using  800,000  cubic  feet  a  month. 

1917  "Touch  a  button"  gas  lighter  perfected. 

1920  Of   several   industrial   plants   in    Chicago   each   uses 
15,000,000  cubic  feet  of  gas  a  month. 


APPENDIX  B 


DATES   GAS   LIGHTING  WAS   INTRODUCED  IN   THE   PRINCIPAL 
CITIES  OF  THE  WORLD 


1807  London,  England 

St.  Petersburg,  Russia 

1816  Liverpool,  England 

Lyons,  France 

1816  Baltimore,  Md. 

1836  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

1817  Manchester,  England 

Mobile,  Ala. 

1818  Sheffield,  England 

Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Glasgow,  Scotland 

1838  Nantes,  France 

Edinburgh,  Scotland 

Leipsic,  Germany 

1819  Birmingham,  England 

1840  Cincinnati,  Ohio 

Bristol,  England 

Montreal,  Canada 

Paris,  France 

1841   Manchester,  N.  H. 

Brussels,  Germany 

Sydney,  Australia 

1822  Munich,  Germany 

Toronto,  Canada 

Belfast,  Ireland 

1843  Halifax,  Canada 

1823  New  York,  N.  Y. 

1844  Hamburg,  Germany 

1825  Amsterdam,  Nether- 

1845 Madrid,  Spain 

lands 

1846  Rouen,  France 

Hanover,  Germany 

St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Ghent,  Belgium 

1847  Fall  River,  Mass. 

Rotterdam,  Nether- 

Breslau, Germany 

lands 

Newark,  N.  J. 

1827  Berlin,  Germany 

1848  New  Haven,  Conn. 

1828  Boston,  Mass. 

Paterson,  N.  J. 

1829  Dresden,  Germany 

Providence,  R.  I. 

1832  Louisville,  Ky. 

Rochester,  N.  Y. 

1833  Vienna,  Austria 

Washington,  D.  C. 

1834  New  Orleans,  La. 

Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Havre,  France 

1849  Quebec,  Canada 

1835  Caen,  France 

Norfolk,  Va. 

Amiens,  France 

Cleveland,  Ohio 

Bologne,  Italy 

Detroit,  Mich. 

173 


174        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 


1849  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Utica,  N.  Y. 

1850  Chicago,  III. 
Columbus,  Ohio 
Hartford,  Conn. 
Worcester,  Mass. 
Kingston,  N.  Y. 

1851  Hamilton,  Ohio 

1852  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Memphis,  Tenn. 
Buenos  Ayres,  Argen- 
tina 

1853  Brockville,  Canada 
Rome,  Italy 
Heidelberg,  Germany 
Milwaukee,  Wis. 

1854  Belleville,  111. 
Nice,  France 
St.  Joseph,  Mo. 
San  Francisco,  Cal. 
Toledo,  Ohio 
Ottawa,  III. 

1855  Vera  Cruz,  Mex. 

1856  Atlanta,  Ga. 
Melbourne,  Australia 
Warsaw,  Russia 
Valparaiso,  Chile 

1857  Scranton,  Pa. 
St.  Paul,  Minn. 
Copenhagen,  Denmark 


1858  Tasmania  Island 

1860  Portland,  Ore. 

1861  Malta  Island 

1862  Shanghai,  China 
Hong  Kong,  China 

1863  Smyrna,  Asiatic  Tur- 

key 

1864  Alexandria,  Egypt 

1865  Bombay,  India 
Rio  Janeiro,  Brazil 
Christchurch,   New 

Zealand 

1866  Oakland,  Cal. 

1867  Moscow,  Russia 
Kansas  City,  Mo. 
Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

1868  Ceylon   (Island) 
Omaha,  Neb. 

1869  Stockton,  Cal. 

1870  Leeds,  England 

1871  Yokohama,  Japan 
Minneapolis,  Minn. 

1872  Tokyo,  Japan 
Montevideo,  Uruguay 

1873  Seattle,  Wash. 

1878  Cologne,  Germany 

1879  St.  Johns,  Newfound- 
land 

1885  Tacoma,  Wash. 
1887  Spokane,  Wash. 


Chronology  compiled  by  W.  R.  Morgan  of  San  Fran- 
cisco as  printed  in  Gas  Institute  News,  April  1,  1912,  has 
been  used  as  a  basis  and  additions  made  to  it. 


APPENDIX   C 

JOURNALS  AND   ASSOCIATIONS   OF  OR  RELATED  TO  THE 
GAS    INDUSTRY 

(United  States  unless  otherwise  indicated) 
/.     Journals 

American  Gas  Association  Bulletin  of  Abstracts  (bi- 
monthly), 1906- 

American  Gas  Association  Monthly,  1919- 

American  Gas  Engineering  Journal,  title  changed  March  5, 
1921,  to  American  Gas  Journal. 

American  Gas  Journal  (New  York),  1859-  (Earlier  titles, 
American  Gas  Light  Journal;  A.  G.  L.  J.  &  Chemical 
Repertory;  American  Gas  Engineering  Journal.) 

American  Gas  Light  Journal.  Title  changed  1917  to  Amer- 
ican Gas  Journal. 

American  Gas  World — 2  numbers — Dec.  7,  1912,  and 
Jan.  20,  1913. 

Chemische  Umschau  auf  dem  Gebiete  der  Fette,  Oel, 
Wachse  und  Harze,  July,  1858 — .  First  title.  Journal 
fiir  Gasbeleuchtung  und  verwandte  Beleuchtungsarten 
sowie  fiir  Wasserversorgung. 

Gas  Age,  1913-1921  (Earlier  title  Progressive  Age),  con- 
tinuing as  Gas  Age-Record. 

Gas  Age-Record  (New  York),  1883— consolidation  1921 
of  Gas  Record   (Chicago)  &  Gas  Age. 

Gas  &  Water  Times  (London),  July,  1853- 

Gas  Industry,  1901. 

Gas  Institute  News,  1912-1918.  See  American  Gas  Asso- 
ciation Monthly. 

Gas  Journal  (London),  Feb.  1,  1849-  Earlier  title  Journal 
of  Gas  Lighting,  Water  Supply  &  Sanitary  Improve- 
ment. 

175 


176         The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Gas  Record  (Nov.  25,  1912— Aug.  1921).  See  Gas  Age- 
Record. 

Gas  World  (London),  1853- 

II  Gaz  (Italian). 

Le  Gaz  (Paris),  Feb.  10,  1857- 

Intercolonlal  Gas  Journal  (Canada),  1907- 

Jahrbuch  der  Gastechnik   (German),   1910- 

Le  Journal  de  I'Eclairage  au  Gaz  (Paris),  April  15,  1852- 

Journal  des  Usines  a  Gaz  (French). 

Journal  du  gaz  et  de  I'electricite  (Paris),  1897-1902. 

Journal  of  Electricity,  Power  &  Gas  (San  Francisco),  1887- 
1916.    Continued  as  lournal  of  Electricity. 

Light,  Heat  k  Power,  1881- 

Natural  Gas  Industry,  1908-  (Buffalo.)  Various  titles, 
Natural  Gas  &  Gasoline  Journal,  etc. 

Progressive  Age,  1883-1912.  (Earlier  titles.  Progressive 
Age  &  Water  Gas  Journal ;  Progressive  Age,  Gas-Water- 
Electricity),  continuing  as  Gas  Age-Record. 

Public  Service  Magazine   (Chicago),  1906- 

Water  &  Gas  Review  (New  York),  1890. 

Water  Gas  Journal  (New  York),  1883- 

//.     Associations 

American  Association  of  Petroleum  Geologists. 

American  Gas  Association,  New  York  (consolidation  of 
American  Gas  Institute  and  National  Commercial  Gas 
Association ) . 

American  Gas  Institute,  Oct.  17,  1906-1918  (consolidation 
of  American  Gas  Light,  Ohio  Gas  Light,  and  Western 
Gas  Association;  continued  as  American  Gas  Associa- 
tion ) . 

American  Chemical  Association,  formed  1876. 

American  Gas  Light  Association,  1873-1906.  See  American 
Gas  Institute. 

American  Institute  of  Mining  and  Metallurgical  Engineers 
(U.  S.). 

American  Petroleum  Institute,  March  14,  1919. 


Appendix  C  \77 


American  Petroleum  Society,  Sept.  10,  1913. 

Arkansas  Public  Utilities  Association,   1917. 

Association  of  Natural  Gas  Supply  Men. 

British  Commercial  Gas  Association  (London),  1912- 

By-Product  Coke  Producers,  1919—. 

Canadian  Gas  Association,  June  26,  1908- 

Compressed  Gas  Manufacturers  Association. 

Congress  of  Gas  Associations  of  America.     First,  St.  Louis, 

1904. 
Cornish  Association  of  Gas  Managers  (England),  1908. 
Eastern   Counties  Gas   Managers'   Association    (England), 

1888- 
Empire  State  Gas  &  Electric  Association,  1905- 
Gas,  Electric  &  Street  Railway  Association  of  Oklahoma, 

1912- 
"Gas  Meters."  ^ 

Gas  Sales  Association  of  New  England. 
Guild  of  Gas  Managers  of  New  England. 
Illinois  Gas  Association,  May  18,  1905- 
Illuminating  Engineering  Society,  1906- 
Indiana  Gas  Association,  1909- 
Indiana  Public  Utility  Association. 
Institution  of  Gas  Engineers,  1863-    (Founded  as  the  British 

Association  of  Gas  Engineers  In  the  same  year)  ;  largest 

membership. 
International  Acetylene  Association,    1898- 
Internatlonal  Gas  Congress  (Paris),  1900. 
International  Gas  Congress  (San  Francisco),  1915. 
Iowa  District  Gas  Association,   1905- 
Irish  Association  of  Gas  Managers  (England),  1887. 
Isle  of  Wight  Gas  Association  (England),  1903. 
Kansas    Gas,    Water,    Electric    Light    &    Street    Railway 

Association. 
London  and  Southern  District  Junior  Gas  Association  (Eng- 
land), 1902. 
Manchester  and  District  Junior  Gas  Association  (England), 

1898. 


178        The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Manchester  District  Institution  of  Gas  Engineers  (Eng- 
land), 1870. 

Michigan  Gas  Association,  1894- 

Midland  Association  of  Gas  Engineers  and  Managers  (Eng- 
land), 1877. 

Midland  Junior  Gas  Association   (England),  1905. 

Missouri  Association  of  Public  Utilities. 

National  Commercial  Gas  Association.     Sec  American  Gas 

Association,  1906-1918. 
National  Gas  Appliance  Manufacturer's  Association. 
National  Gas  Engine  Association. 
Natural  Gas  Association  of  America,   1906- 
Natural  Gas  and  Petroleum  Association  of  Canada. 
Natural  Gas  Supply  Men. 

New  England  Association  of  Commercial  (Gas)  Managers. 
New  England  Association  of  Gas  Engineers,  1871- 
New  Jersey  State  Gas  Association,  1911- 
North   British   Association   of   Gas   Managers    (England), 

1861- 
North  Carolina  Gas  Association. 
Northern   District   of   Ireland   Gas   Managers'   Association 

(England),  1904. 
North  of  England  Gas  Managers'  Association   (England), 

1877- 

Ohio  Gas  Light  Association,  1885-1906.     See  A.  G.  I. 
Oklahoma  Utilities  Association. 

Pacific  Coast  Gas  Association,  1893- 
Pennsylvania  Gas  Association,  1909- 
Pennsylvania  Oil  &  Gas  Men's  Association,   1921- 

Scottish  Junior  Gas  Association  (Eastern  District  [Eng- 
land]), 1904. 

Scottish.  Junior  Gas  Association  (Western  District  [Eng- 
land]), 1904. 

Societe  Technique  de  I'lndustrie  du  Gaz  en  France,  1874- 

Society  of  Gas  Lighting,  1885. 

South  Central  Gas  Association. 


Appendix  C  179 


Southern  Association  of  Gas  Engineers  and  Managers  (Eng- 
land), 1875. 
Southern  Gas  Association,  1909- 
Southwestern  Electrical  and  Gas  Association,  1905— 

The  Ohio  Gas  &  Oil  Men's  Association,  1918- 

Wales  and  Monmouthshire  District  Institution  of  Gas  En- 
gineers and  Managers  (England),  1905. 

Waverly  Association  of  Gas  Managers  (England),  1861. 

Western  Gas  Association,  1878-1906.  See  American  Gas 
Institute. 

West  Virginia  Oil  and  Natural  Gas  Association. 

Wisconsin  Gas  Association,  1902- 

Yorkshire  Junior  Gas  Association  (England),  1903. 


APPENDIX  D 

REFERENCE   BOOKS  ON  THE  GAS  INDUSTRY  AND  ALLIED 
SUBJECTS 

A  SHORT  list  of  the  best  historical  and  modern  works 
-^"^  from  the  collection  in  the  Library  of  The  People's  Gas 
Light  &  Coke  Company,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

Accum  —  Practical  treatise  on  gas  light.    2d  ed.     1845. 

American  Gas  Association  —  Gas  Chemist's  handbook.    1922. 

American  Gas  (Journal's)  Catalog  &  Directory,  1922  — 

American  Meter  Co.  —  Meter  proven     1915. 

Bacon  &  Hamor — American   Petroleum  Industry,  2  vols., 
1916. 

Bov^ditch  —  Analysis,   technical  valuation,   purification   and 
rise  of  coal  gas.     1867. 

Brown's  Directory  of  American  Gas  Companies  &  Gas  En- 
gineering Catalog.     1887- 

Christopher — Modern  coking  practice.    2  vols.     1917. 

Clegg — Manufacture  of  coal  gas.     1872. 

Colyer  —  Gas    works    arrangement,    construction    and    ma- 
chinery.    1884. 

Cooper — By-products  coking.     1917. 

Dibdin — Public  lighting  by  gas  and  electricity.     1902. 

Dowson  —  Producer  gas.     1912. 

Emmons  —  Geology  of  petroleum.     1912. 

Forstall  —  Manual  of  gas  distribution.     1920. 

Gas  consumer's  guide.     1871. 

Gas  Machinery  Co. — Carbureted  water  gas  apparatus,  28  p. 

Coal  gas  apparatus.     52  p. 

"Gas  World"  Year  Book.     1911— 

General  Gas  Light  Co. — ^\Vhat  the  government  says  about 
your  cost-of-light.     12  p. 

Gentsch  —  Incandescent  gas  lighting.     1896. 

Gerhard  —  Piping  installation  in  buildings.     1907. 

180 


Appendix  D  181 


Great  Britain  —  Commissioners  of   Patents   for  inventions. 
Abridgments   of   the  specifications   relating   to  the  pro- 
duction and  application  of  gas.     1681  to  1858.     584  p. 
1860. 
Hamor  and  Padgett  —  Examination  of  petroleum. 

Hastings  —  Gas  engineering  and  manufacture;  a  review  of 
the  Institution  of  Gas  Engineers,  1863-1913.  4  parts. 
1915-16. 

Hole  —  Distribution  of  gas.    2d  ed.     1909. 

Hughes — Treatise  on  gas  works.     1871. 

Humphreys — Water  gas  in  U.  S.     1912. 

Hunt  —  Gas  lighting.     1904. 

King's  Treatise  on  the  science  and  manufacture  of  coal-gas. 
3  vols.     1878. 

Koppers  Co.  —  By-product  coke  and  gas  oven  plants.    68  p. 

By-product  coke  and  gas  ovens.    37  p. 

Lunge — Coal-Tar  and  Ammonia.     5th  ed.     3  vols.     1916. 

Masse  —  Le  gaz.     3  vols.     1914. 

Matthews  —  Compendium  of  gas  lighting.     1817. 

Meade  —  Modern  gas  works  practice.     2d  ed.     1921. 

National  Commercial  Gas  Association  —  Industrial  Fuel 
booklets.     1916. 

National  Commercial  Gas  Association  —  Practical  Gas  Edu- 
cational course.     1915. 

National  Commercial  Gas  Association — Utilization  of  gas 
appliances.     1914. 

Nicolls  —  Story  of  American  coals. 

Peckston  —  Practical  treatise  on  gas  lighting.     1841. 

People's  Gas  Light  &  Coke  Co. — How  (carbureted  water) 
gas  is  made.    6  p.    III. 

Public  Utility  Reports,  annotated.    Rochester,  N.  Y.    1915- 

Richards  —  Manufacture  of  coal  gas.     1877. 

Rideal  —  Relative  hygienic  value  of  gas  and  electric  light- 
ing.    1908. 

Russell  —  Operation  of  gas  works.     1917. 

Russell  and  Wills  —  Chemical  control  of  gas  manufacture. 
1916. 

Stone — Testing  of  gas  meters.     1909. 


182  The  Romance  of  the  Gas  Industry 

Strachc — Gasbeleuchtung.     1913. 

Thorpe — Coal:  its  history  and  uses. 

U.  S.  Mines  Bureau  Publications. 

U.  S.  Patent  Office  —  Patents  of  gas  meters.  1837-97. 
2  vols. 

*U.  S.  Standards  Bureau — Measurements  for  the  house- 
hold.    1915.     (Price  15c.) 

*U.  S.  Standards  Bureau  —  Standards  for  gas  service.  4th 
ed.     1920.     (Price  20c) 

U.  S.  Standards  Bureau — Standard  methods  of  gas  testing. 
1916. 

Wagner  —  Coal  gas  residuals.     1914;  also  2d.  ed.     1918. 

Warnes — Coal  tar  distillation  and  working  up  of  tar 
products.     2d  ed.     1917. 

Wehrle  —  American  Gas  Works  Practice.     1919. 

Woodall  &  Parkinson  —  Distribution  by  steel.     1911. 

Readers  can  obtain  both  interesting  and  practical  informa- 
tion on  the  gas  industry  by  applying  to  their  local  gas  com- 
panies and  public  libraries. 

Research  students  are  referred  especially  to  the  publica- 
tions and  services  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Standards,  the 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Mines,  the  Library  of  Congress  (all  at 
Washington,  D.  C.)  and  to  the  excellent  technical  libraries 
in  Chicago  (The  John  Crerar),  in  New  York  (The  En- 
gineering Societies)  and  in  Pittsburgh  (The  Carnegie). 


♦  These  tTTO  books  should  be  in  every  household.  Circular  No.  55 
is  of  especial  value,  furnishing  authoritative  information  on  testing 
the  accuracy  of  the  amounts  of  commodities  purchased ;  methods  of 
heating  and  of  refrigeration;  best  methods  of  lighting;  reading 
water,  electric,  and  gas  meters ;  and  many  other  household  subjects, 
especially  those  relating  to  the  kitchen.  (Both  obtainable  only  from 
the  Superintendent  of  Documents,  Washington,  D.  C.  Postage 
stamps  arc  not  accepted  in  payment.) 


APPENDIX  E 

PUBLIC    UTILITY  INFORMATION 

THE  following  organizations  are  specializing  on  utility 
subjects,  and  are  in  a  position  to  supply  readers  with 
authoritative  and  up-to-date  information.  Apply  to  the  one 
in  your  locality. 

Georgia  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information,  Atlanta, 
Georgia. 

Illinois  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information,  Chicago, 
Illinois. 

Indiana  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information,  Indian- 
apolis, Indiana. 

Iowa  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information,  Des  Moines, 
Iowa. 

Kentucky  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information,  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky. 

Michigan  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information,  Ann 
Arbor,  Michigan. 

Missouri  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information,  St. 
Louis,  Missouri. 

Nebraska  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information,  Lincoln, 
Nebraska. 

New  England  Bureau  of  Public  Service  Information,  Bos- 
ton, Massachusetts. 

New  York  State  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information, 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

Ohio  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information,  Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

Oklahoma  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information,  Okla- 
homa City,  Oklahoma. 

Rocky  Mountain  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information, 
Denver,  Colorado. 

Texas  Public  Service  Information  Bureau,  Dallas,  Texas. 

Washington  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information, 
Seattle,  Washington. 

Wisconsin  Public  Utilities  Bureau,  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin. 

See  also  Appendix  D. 

183 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abu   Bekr,   Caliph,    10 

Accum,  Frederick,  40,  165 

Achilles    103 

Ackermann  and  Sons,  Arthur, 
3S 

Adoration  of  the  Magi  16 

Air,  discovery  of  conitituents 
162;  inflammable  42;  and 
gas  for  lighting  57;  agencies 
in  Chicago  polluting  137 

Alchemista,  Ben  Jonson's  4; 
Milton's  6 ;  description  8 ; 
laboratory  9;  libraries  of 
Alexandrian  Schools  9,  10; 
definition  11;  as  first  apothe- 
caries, chemists  and  druggists 
11;  general   152,   155 

Alchemy,   rewards   and   study,   9 

Alcohol  from  gas  128 

Alexandria,   Egypt,   9,   10 

Alfred,  King,  36 

All-Hallows  35 

Aluminum  131 

Ambroise  and  Company,  Mi- 
chael, 43 

American  Chemical  Society 
founded   170 

American   Gas  Association   86 

American  Gas  Light  Journal 
45,  46,  107 

American  Meter  Co.  170 

Amiens,  Peace  of,  celebrated  by 
gas  lighting,  24 

Ammonia,  absorption  machine, 
169;    principle   172 

Ammonia  sulphate  75 

Amru,  Mohammedan  General, 
10 

Andreas'  History  of  Chicago  50, 
51 


Antioch's  streets  lighted  at  night 

159 
Appliances    (gas)    in    use  —  in 

Great   Britain    84;    in    U.    S. 

87 
Appliance  store,  first,   170 
Apothecary  shops,  origin  of,   11 
Argand  lamp  invented  162 
Associations,  list  of  gas,  176-179 
Auburn,  N.  Y.  48 
Ayrshire,  Scotland,  birthplace  of 

Murdock  and  Dunlop  24 

Babel,  Tower  of,  19 

Babylon  19 

Baby's  milk  132 

Baker's  ovens  gas  heated   171 

Baking  bread  129;  and  cooking 
159;   and  kitchen  159 

Balloons  in  Civil  War  used 
water  gas  68 

Balneum  109 

Baltimore,  Md.  47;  gas  light- 
ing exhibit  in  Peale's  Museum 
44,  165;  Gas  Light  Company 
of   Baltimore   incorporated   44 

Barber,  John,  124 

Barlow,   John,    105 

"Baron  &  Saddleback  of  Beef  a 
la  Magna  Charta "  168 

Barres  118 

Barton    Sir  Henry,  35 

Bath,  Knights  of  and  Order  of 
tiie  Bath,  origin.  109,  159;  first 
Englishman  addicted  to  daily 
110;  Turkish,  introduced  in 
U.  S.  Ill,  169;  Order  of 
Saturday  Night  Bath  gives 
way  to  new  Order  of  the 
Daily  Bath  112;  first  Amer- 
ican   built    110,    111,    167 


187 


188 


Index 


Bathtub,  English  inventor,  110, 
167;  patent  109-110;  first 
made  in  U.  S.  Ill;  used  in 
New  York  HI,  169;  in  White 
House   111,   168 

Bathing,  before  days  of  gas-fired 
water  heaters  110;  unlawful 
in  Boston   111,  168. 

Bathroom,  first,  108,  159 

Baths,  early  bathing  with  Egyp- 
tians, Jews,  Greeks,  Romans, 
English  in  United  States  108- 
111;  Roman's  medicine  109; 
first  public  in  Chicago  111, 
171 

Beau  Brummel  39 

Beaver  Tail   Lighthouse  43 

Beckfield,  J.  C,  113,  171 

Beckton,   England   72 

Beehive  coke  ovens  76 ;  esti- 
mated loss  in  by-products  151 

Beer  and  gas  butts  46 

Beggar's  Opera  37 

Bellow  Mill  24 

Bell's  telephone  45 

Benzole  discovered   166 

Berkelev,   Bishop,    152 

Berry,   Miles,    167 

Bible,  Old  Testament  translated 
into  Greek,  9 

Birmingham,  Eng.  26,  127 

Bitumen,  of  Judea  18;  used  in 
Tower  of  Babel  and  streets  of 
Babylon    19 

Black  Arts  6 

"Black  diamond"  147 

Black,  Dr.  Joseph,  160 

Black,  Dr.  Steven,    162 

Blackfriars  Bridge   171 

Bladder,   gas  container,   65 

*'  Blows   and   run,"   cycle  of,   71 

Blue  gas   68,   69,  70 

Boer,  W.  J.,  171 

Bogardus,  James,  167 

Boilers,  early  gas  fired,  127 


Bone  &  Wheeler  171 

Bonnemain  162 

Books  on  gas  and  related  in- 
dustries 180-182 

Boston,  45,  47,  166,  168;  Boston 
Gas    Light    Co.    166 

Boulton  and  Watt's  shop  gas 
lighted  23 

Boyle,  Robert,  160 

Braziers  102,  103,  115,  117 

Bread,  steps  necessary  in  mak- 
ing, 100 

"Breeze"  75 

"Brilliant"  gas  heater  119 

Bristol,    England    72 

British  Royal  Society  formed  160 

Brompton,    England    165 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  48,  166 

Brunton,  William,  139,  165 

Buffalo,  N.  Y.  48 

Bunsen  burner  53,  105,  126 

Bunsen,  Robert  Wilhelm  von, 
52-54,  169 

Burners,  Cockspur  26 ;  kinds  of 
126-7;  Delbruck's  167;  Flet- 
cher's 169;  "porous"  surface 
combustion  burner  exhibited  at 
New  York  Fair  107 

Burnham  &  Co.,   Charles,  169 

Butterflies,   model   glass   128 

Button-making  127,  128 

Butts  of  gas  for  export  46 

By-product  coke-oven  process 
and  operation  73,  76,  148 

Cakes  baked  on  gas  stoves  at 
Centennial  Exhibition  170 

Cambridge,  Mass.  45 

Candle-"  clock  "  of  King  Alfred 
36;  lantern  41 

Candlemas  35 

Capitalization  of  gas  companies 
in  the  United  States  47,  85 ;  of 
petroleum  and  natural  gas 
companies  in  the  U.  S.  88 


Ind 


ex 


189 


Caraffe,  Abbe  Laudati,  161 

Carbon  dioxide  discovered,  161 ; 
monoxide   58 

Carbonizing  period  74  —  75 

Carbureted  water  gas,  father  of, 
67;  process  68,  71;  William- 
son "  machine  "  69  ;  danger  of 
early  operations  71 ;  intro- 
duced into  England  72 

Carbureter  69 

Carburizing   131 

Carree   169 

Carriages  lighted  by  gas  47 

Cathels,  E.  S.,  on  "  Reign  of  Ter- 
ror "  40 

Cavendish,  Henry,   162 

Ceilings,  how  blackened  58 

Cement  joints  used  169 

Censers    35,    159 

Census  reports  on  gas  industry 
87,  88 

Centennial  Exhibition  170 

Cerium  54 

Charcoal  115,  117;  license  is- 
sued  160 

"Charging"  generators  71 

Charles   II.   160 

Charleston,  S.  C.  48 

Chartered  Gas  Light  Company 
82,    83 

Checker  brick  69,  71 

"Cheerful"  gas  heater  110 

Chemical  industry,  beginning  of 
American,  160;  miracle  60 

Chemical  Society  of  Philadelphia 
162 

Chemist  of  old  152,  155 

Chemistry,  origin  as  science  11; 
the  Aladdin  and  ally  of  indus- 
tries 153,  154 

Chicago,  48;  area  in  1849  and 
1922,  93;  location  of  first  gas 
works  49-51 ;  description  by 
Kirkland  of  first  gas  lighting 
49 ;  by  Governor  John  Reyn- 
olds   50;    by    Andreas    50-51; 


from  Gem  of  the  Prairie  51; 
from  Chicago  Journal  52 ;  first 
street  gas  lighted  51 ;  wooden 
mains  49 ;  population  and 
primitive  condition  in  1849, 
52;  prices  for  gas  in  1850,  49; 
first  boat  arrived  52;  yearly 
damage  due  to  smoke  136, 
142 ;  per  capita  coal  consump- 
tion   137 

Chicago  Association  of  Com- 
merce, Report  on  Smoke 
Abatement  and  Electrification 
136,   142 

Chicago  Gas  Company,  miles  of 
mains,  number  of  meters  and 
patrons   92 

Chicago  Gas  Light  &  Coke  Co 
49,  92 ;  incorporators  50 

Chicago  Historical   Society  49 

Chicago  Journal   51 

Chimneys,  first  use,  117;  in 
Louvre   160 

Chinese  first  to  use  gas  18 

Chlorophyll   and  haemoglobin  60 

Choke-damp  21 

Christ  Child  16 

Cincinnati,   Ohio  47 

"City  Beautiful"  134,  135 

Claymond  171 

Clayton,  Dr.,  21,  106,  161 

Clegg,  Samuel  (pupil  of  Mur- 
dock),  33;  invents  gas  meter  — 
description  83;  wet  165;  dry 
167;  cylindrical  holder  33, 
164;  built  gas  works  163;  in- 
troduced wet  lime  purifier  164 ; 
hydraulic  main  164;  engineer 
for  first  gas  company  164;  pa- 
tent for  first  rotary  retort  and 
gas  governor  33;  silver  medal 
given  for  paper  describing  gas 
lighting  164 

Clegg,  Jr.,  Samuel,  106 

Clinton,  John,  161 


190 


Index 


Clothes  dryer,  gas-heated,  114 

Cnosus  has  first  bathroom  ever 
built  108 

ComI  Age  146 

Coal  distillation  —  to  produce  gas 
and  tar  ,  161;  described,  161, 
patent  162,  at  University  of 
Louvain  162 

Coal  gas-plant  built  for  London 
artist  38;  manufacture  of  66, 
61 

Coal,  England  159;  first  mention, 
first  mined,  replaces  wood,  a 
commercial  commodity,  char- 
ter granted  for  mining  at  New- 
castle, used  in  London  159; 
Queen  Bess  prohibits  use  160; 
exported   161 

Coal,  how  formed  59-62;  an- 
thracite 68 ;  first  miner  in 
Pennsylvania  162;  bituminous 
74;  gas  engine  124;  Health 
Tax  imposed  on  use  of  160; 
resources  estimated  145 ;  pro- 
duction in  1920 — of  world, 
United  States  and  Great  Bri- 
tain 88;  amount  of  tons 
mined  converted  into  mechan- 
ical energy  144,  147;  amount 
required  for  cooking  and  heat-, 
ing  (gas  vs.  electricity)  145-6; 
value  of  original  and  of  by- 
products   148 

Coal,  United  States  161,  mined 
at  Ottawa,  111.,  and  Richmond 
Basin,  Va.,  discovered  in  Ohio 
161;  tons  mined  yearly  146; 
amount  used  in  gas  manufac- 
ture 86,   146 

Coal  tar  151,  166;  Punch  on 
135;    dye    (first)    169 

Cockspur  burner  26 

"Coffee  and  Tea  Press"  170 

Coffee-percolator  patent  170; 
roasting  129-130;  steps  neces- 
sary in  making  100 


Coke  bins,  breeze,  car  75 ;  hot 
69 ;  how  made  and  composi- 
tion 43,  66,  68,  150;  quench- 
ing 75 

Coke  ovens  —  by-product  73; 
beehive  16 

"  Coking  "  coal  67 

Colors  rivaling  the  rainbow, 
source  of,  151 

Columbus  and  Ptolemy  9 

Combustion — principles  139;  im- 
portance of  perfect  53,  58;  en- 
gineer 127,  148;  studied  by 
Hooke,  inventor  of  watches 
160;  surface  167,  171 

Commons,  House  of,  first  gas 
lighted,   39 

Community  Betterment  Fund 
143 

Competition  in  gas  industry  89 

"Confidence  men,"  early,  7 

Congreve,  William,  166 

Conshohocken,  Pa.  71 

Consolidated  Gas  Company  of 
New  York  91 

Consolidation  of  gas  companies 
— benefits  and  economies  90,  91 

Constantinople,  Sultan's  palace 
and   mosques   gas   lighted   168 

Cooking  and  heating  by  gas — 
early  uses  104-106;  vs.  elec- 
tricity  145 

Cooking,  benefits  of  good,  101- 
102 

Cooking  by  gas — inventors  106; 
lectures  168 

Cooking  stoves   167 

Cosh,  William  M.,  71 

Cotton  Mill  lighted  by  gas  24 

Croll    168 

Crossley,  Samuel,  166 

"Crudes,"  first  coal,  168 

Cubic  foot  bottle  for  measuring 
gas  170 

Culinary  art,  Roman,  103 


Index 


191 


Cups  of    a   gas-holder,    descrip- 
tion 79 
Curie,  Madame,   171,   172 
Customer    ownership    of    public 
utilities   95 

Dairies   130 

Darracott,   George,   168 

Darwin  (quotation)  1 

Davis  168 

Debierne  172 

De  la  Rive  167 

De  la  Roche  d'  Allion  19 

Delbruck,  patents  of  burner  105; 

167 
Delphi,     Oracle,     Priestess     and 

Temple  17 
"D  "-slide  valve  25 
Deutschland  151 
Devil,   disciples   of   6 ;    gas,    the 

breath  of  the  46 
Dies  for  coins  128 
Diller  162 
Diocletian   9,    109 
Discoveries  of  the  age  discussed 

by  early  London  artists  38 
Diseases  cured  10,  152 
Distillation   of   coal,    destructive 

66,  150 
District  of  Columbia  48 
Divorces   caused   by   poor   cooks 

102 
Domestic  uses  of  gas  87 
Down,   Samuel,    167 
Dracones  for  heating  water  117 
Dragons  and  monsters  59-60 
Drake,  Col.  E.  L.  19;   169 
Drugs,  first  made  11 
Dubuque,  Iowa  48 
Du  Motay,  Tessie,   67 
Dundonald,  Lord,   162 
Dunlop,    inventor   of   pneumatic 

tire,  birthplace  25 
Dutchman's  party  supplied  with 

gas  in  a  demijohn  45-6 


Dwarfs  7 

Dynamite  discovered  170 

Earth,  birth  and  history  1,  2,  3, 

jungle  life  59,  60,  61,  62 

Economy,  results  of  consolida- 
tion of  utilities  90,  91 ;  in  use 
of  coal  144 

Edges  167 

Edward  L  138 

Edwards  118,  168 

Electricity,  as  competitor  in  gas 
lighting  56,  57;  as  a  heating 
agent  145 ;  energy  and  meters 
in  New  York  City  92 ;  equip- 
ment necessary  to  supply 
homes  (wired  with  electricity) 
for  cooking  and  heating  146 

"Elixir  of  Life"  10 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  140,  160 

Eisner   127 

Energy,  per  cent  of  total  in  coal 
delivered  as  mechanical,  144 

England's  national  debt  paid  oflF 
by  gas   134 

English  primer  36 

Evansville,   Ind.  47 

Evelyn   140 

Exhauster  75 ;   patent  166 

Exits,  why  gas  lighted  132 

Fairies  7 

Faraday  166,  167 

Fillmore,  President,  installed 
bathtub  in  White  House  111, 
168 

Fire,  first  uses  of  102;  fi.re- 
damp  21;  fire-pans  159;  fire- 
wells  of  China  18;  fire-wor- 
ship 16,  18;  loss  in  the  U.  S. 
—  according  to  causes  149; 
due  to  gas  148  —  equivalence 
in  new  buildings  150 

Flat  flame  burner  26 

Fletcher,  Thomas,  105,  125,  168, 
170 


192 


Ind 


ex 


Fontana  foreshadowed  water  gas 
process  67 

Food  preparation  159;  Egyp- 
tians, Assyrians,  Greeks  and 
Romans  102-103 

Forks,  first  use  in  Italy  160;  in 
England   160 

Fortune-tellers,  early,  16 

Foundry   130 

Fourth  of  July  151 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  161 

Franklin  Automobile  Co.  172 

Franklin   Institute   53 

Fredonia,  Chautauqua  Co.,  N. 
Y.  20 

Fuels,  used  in  gas  production  in 
U.  S.  86;  advantages  of  gas 
as  129,  145;  w^aste  146,  147; 
conservation  146,  147 ;  imper- 
ative 153 — through  use  of  by- 
product coke  ovens  148  —  by 
complete  gasification  147 

Furnace,  rotary  gas  131 

Galena,  Illinois  48 
Galveston,  Texas  48 
Garbage  destroyer,  first  171 
Gas     known     to     ancients     15; 
amount  used  in  U.  S.  in  1920 
for     lighting,     domestic     and 
industrial  purposes  87 
Gas  appliance  store,  first  all-  107 
Gas    bill  —  and    newspaper    bill 
compared  121 ;  of  Jules  Verne's 
hero    55 
"  Gas  burns  up  oxygen  "  a  half 
truth  57;   gas  a  scavenger  58 
Gas  coal,  composition  of  good  66 
Gas   Coke,   qualities  of  good   68 
Gas  Companies,  in  South  Amer- 
ica 85;   in  the   United   King- 
dom,   Australia,    Canada    and 
United    States    84-88;     United 
States — first  organized  and  in- 
corporated 44,    164,    165;    first 


cities  to  have  47,  48,  86 ;  early 
companies  47-52;  New  York 
State  48 

Gas  Company,  first  32,  33;  first 
meeting  of  stockholders  32; 
a  public  service  corporation 
93 

Ga?,  early  use  for  exhibition  and 
lighting  by  Minckelers  162; 
by  Lord  Dundonald  162;  by 
Diller  162;  by  Murdock  23; 
by  Ambroise  43,  163  ;  by  Mur- 
dock 23,  163;  by  Lebon  163; 
by  Murdock  23-24  and  by  Hen- 
frey  42;  by  Winsor  30,  32, 
163;  for  Ackermann  38;  by 
Clegg  163;  by  Winsor  32, 
164;  on  Westminster  Bridge 
165;  by  MacMurtie  165;  by 
Peale  44,  165;  in  New  York 
45 

Gas  engine  —  inventor  and  first 
practical  124,  169,  172;  ex- 
haust heats  water  124 

Gas  engineering,  books  on  180, 
182 

"Gas  fairy"  133;  in  the  house- 
hold 96-122;  makes  wash  day 
a  shopping  day  113-114;  helps 
the  tired  business  man  115 

Gas  Fire  Company  119;  gas  fire 
patent  118,  168;  for  heating 
buildings  169 

Gas  Generating  and  Cooking 
Range  Co.  169 

Gas,  how  measured  before  in- 
vention of  meter  82 

Gas  industry  —  indebted  to  ar- 
tists 38,  44;  rivals  steel  indus- 
try 153  ;  old  yet  ever  new  155  ; 
and  public  service  156 

Gas  inspectors,  early  82-84 

Gas,   kinds  of  manufactured   64 

"  Gas  Lamps,  A  Plea  for "  by 
Stevenson  56 


Index 


193 


Gas  Lantern  of  Murdock  28 

Gas  lighting — Culross  Abbey 
162;  Matthew's  description  of 
public  display  of  gas  lighting 
at  Soho  in  celebration  of 
Peace  of  Amiens  24;  in 
early  London  37-41;  London 
crowd  caricatured  38;  first 
treatise  on  165  ;  created  "  Reign 
of  Terror  "  40  ;  makes  "  con- 
tinuous day  "  in  Paris  41 ;  early 
in  United  States  42,  43,  44,  52 ; 
for  night  express,  carriages 
and  steamboats  46,  47;  in  early 
Chicago  49,  50,  51,  52 ;_  for- 
midable rival  of  electricity  in 
Europe  55;  and  automatic  dis- 
tance extinguishing  55;  why 
hot  56;  hygienic  value  of  57; 
warm  domestic  radiance  of 
56,   99 

Gas  Lights  in  Pall  Mall,  A  Peep 
at  38 

Gas  log,  inefficient  120 

"  Gas  machine  "  Williamson  car- 
bureted water  69 ;  description 
70 

Gas  manufacture,  in  clay  pipe 
or  test  tube  13;  and  delivery 
79-81_ 

Gas  oil,  spray  69;  used  in 
manufacture  in  the   U.   S.    86 

Gas  ordinance,  first  American 
44 

Gas,  origin  of  the  word,  12-13; 
discovery  and  experiments  by 
van  Heimont  11,  12;  Shirley 
21;  Clayton  21,  22;  experi- 
ments in  bladder  amuses 
friends  22;  Murdock  22,  28; 
Minckelers  29;  Lebon  29; 
Winsor  29,  30;  compressed 
in  drums  166;  to  light  Houses 
of  Parliament  46;  in  demi- 
john 45,  46 ;  exported  in  butts 
46 ;   hazards   and  stage  fright 


41 ;  must  be  kept  under  con- 
trol 80-81;  premixed  with 
air  132 

Gas  pipes,  first  made  from  gun 
barrels  80-81 ;  Londoners  sus- 
picious of  piping  in  House  of 
Commons  39 

Gas  plant,  experimental  25; 
"  one  man  "  carbureted  water 
71-72;    smallest   62-63 

Gas  processes,  coal  gas,  66,  67; 
carbureted  water  gas  67,  68, 
69,  70,  71,  72;  oil-gas  72-73; 
by-product  coke-oven  73-76; 
beehive   coke-ovens    76 

Gas  production  (1,000  cubic 
feet).  Great  Britain  84; 
United  States  85,  86;  New 
York  City  92 

Gas  service,  never  fails  81,  132; 
at  a  "  twist  of  the  wrist "  100 ; 
model  servant  in  the  house 
101;  the  growing  giant  in  in- 
dustries 122;  "  semper  fidelis  " 
133,  156 

Gas  standards  54,  56,  57,  93,  94 

Gas  statistics,  see  latest  editions 
of  ^xowix's  Directory  of  Amer- 
ican Gas  Companies  and  Gas 
World  Directory  (English) 

Gas  supply  shut  oflF  during  the 
day  107 

Gas,  the  Soul  of  Coal  14;  the 
Oracle  of  the  Gods  17 

"  Gas  tip  "  invented  25 

"  Gastronomy"  105,  168 

Gas  turbine   125,    147 

Gas  World  Directory  84 

Gases  in  coal  mines  21 

Gay,  John  37 

"  Geest,"  "  Geist, "  ghost,  gas  12 

Gem  of  the  Prairie  51 

Generator   69-70 

Genie  (evil)  stops  delivery  of 
gas    97-99 

Geysers    112 


194 


Index 


Ghost  of  van  Helmont  12 

Gillard   53 

Glasgow  141 

Goats  intoxicated  by  gas  16 

Goddard  on  high  quality  gas  56- 

57 
Goddard,     Ebenezer     125,     167, 

169,   170 
Gold,  quest  for  5 
"  Gold-brick  artists,"  early  7 
*'  Golden  Touch  "   5 
Goodwin  &  Co.,  W.  W.  170 
Gordon,  David  64,  166 
Governor,    first    patent    for    gas 

33,  166 
Graham,  Alexander  105,  168 
Great  Falls,  N.  H.  48 
Guildhall   gas  lighted   39 
Gun  barrels  used  for  gas  pipes 

80,   81 
Guthsmann  161 

Hadden  118 

Haemoglobin  and  chlorophyll  60 
Hales,  Dr.  Stephen  161 
Halifax,  Canada  85 
Happiness,  spiritual  11 
Hare,  Robert  163 
Hartley  &  Glover  170 
Hastings,  Nora  (quotation)   15 
Hautefeuille,  Abbe  d'  124 
Havana,  Cuba  168 
Hawthorne  5 
Hay  Market  Garden  42 
Health  and  smoke  138,  139,  142 
Health    Tax    imposed    on   fire- 
places 160 
Heard,  Edward,  164,   166 
"  Heat  the  world  with  gas "  29 
Heat,  how  produced  by  gas  112; 
for  factory  purposes,   applica- 
tion of  gas  heat  126-127;   la- 
tent   and    specific    heat    pro- 
pounded 162 
Heater    (gas)     "Cheerful"    119 
"Brilliant"    119 


Heating,  advantages  of  gas  for 
168;  by  electricity  145;  costs 
—  gas  <vs.  electricity  145,    146 

Heating  stoves  —  cast  iron  box 
used  160;  Franklin  invented 
cast  iron  box  161 

Heating  <vs.  candle  power  54 

Helium  20 

Helmont,  John  Baptist  van,  11, 
160 

Henfrey,  Benjamin  42 

Hennepin,  Father,   161 

Henry  I.  of  England  109 

Henry  HI.   159 

Hicks,  Robert,   109,  166 

High-pressure    gas   lighting    171 

Hill,  Samuel  167 

Hobgoblins  7 

Hofmann,  von  168 

Holder  (gas)  — inventor  and  de- 
scription 79,  162;  storage  76; 
relief  78 ;  incased  in  brick 
buildings  41,  79;  London's  40  ; 
first  cylindrical  33,  165;  tele- 
scopic—  invented  patent  167; 
concrete  170 

Home  Service  Department,  re- 
viving pride  in  the  home  100, 
101,   102 

Homer  103,  108 

Hooke  160 

Hop  waste  (patent)  gas  from 
169 

Hornbook  36 

Hot  air  heating,  early  159,  161; 
first  furnace  in  U.  S.  167; 
first  patent  171 

Hot  water  system  invented  and 
first  used  for  incubators  162; 
conservatory  164;  gas-fired 
120 

Hour  glass  used  by  Paris  link- 
boys  41 

House  and  space  heating  with 
gas,    early    118,    169;    Roman 


Index 


195 


brazier  117;  English  terra  cot- 
ta  gas  heaters    119;    Reflector 
type   120;    first  heaters    (fore- 
runners of  asbestos  gas  heat- 
ers)      119;      stove      exhibited 
(1851)     168;    modern    radiant 
fire  type  120;   number  of  gas 
heaters  in  U.  S.  87 
House    heating,    early    methods 
with     Greeks,     Romans     and 
American  Indians  115,  116 
Hubbard,  Gardiner  45 
Humane  Societies  adopt  gas  129 
Humphreys,  Alexander  C.   72 
Humphreys  and  Glasgow  carbu- 
reted water  gas  process  72 
Hutchinson    167 
Huygen    124 

Hydraulic  main  33,  66,  164 
Hydrogen     discovered     160;     in 

water   162 
Hygienic  value  of  gas  lighting  57 
Hypocaust,    inventor    115;    fore- 
runner of  modern  hot  air  fur- 
nace 115,   117,   157 

Ibbetson  and  water  gas  67 

Ice-making  machine,  first  68 ; 
gas-fired    126 

Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  52 

Illinois  Commerce  Commission 
94 

Illuminating  Society  of  London 
172 

Impurities  in  gas  77,  78 

Incinerator,  gas  172 

India,  Why  Columbus  searched 
for  9 

Indigo  from  napthalene  171 

Investors  in  securities  of  public 
utilities   protected   93 

Iron  oxide  77 

Iron  smelting,  license  issued  160 

Ironer,  gas-heated  and  electric- 
driven  113 


James  I.  35 

Jamestown   Settlement   160 

Japanning,    130,    172 

Japan's  gas  plants  170 

Jerusalem's     streets     lighted     at 

night  159 
Jesuits  discovered  burning  gas  in 

Ohio  Valley  20 
Joachim,  John  161 
Johnstone   118 
Jones,  E.  C.  72,  73,  171 
Jonson,  Ben  (quotation)  4 
Journals,  list  of  gas  175,  176 
Jo  vain,  Emperor,  117 

Kanawha  Valley's  burning  gas 
20 

Kelvin,  Lord  123 

Kempis,   Thomas   k   11 

Ketchum,  Arthur  (quotation)   34 

Kier,  Pittsburgh  druggist  sells 
petroleum  for  medicinal  pur- 
poses 19 

Kinetic  burner  53 

King,  Mr.  Alfred,  invented  first 
gas  cooker  106 

King's  Treatise  on  the  Manufac- 
ture and  Distribution  of  Coal 
Gas  81,  82 

Kirkland's  History  of  Chicago  ^9 

Kitchen,  poor  and  good  arrange- 
ment of,  101 ;  useless  steps  in 
a,  100 

Klinkelfuss    168 

Knowles,    George    168 

Koran  and  Alexandrian  Library 
10 

Krause,  Fred  169 

Labor  saving  devices  for  women 
take  the  drudgery  out  of  house- 
work  10 

La  Fayette  saw  early  use  of  nat- 
ural gas  20 

Lamb,   Charles,   103 


196 


Ind 


ex 


Lamp  black  73 

Lampkin,   Charles,    71 

Lamplighter   37,   38 

Lamps,  oil,   159 

Lantern,  candle,  49 

Lantern  invented  by  King  Al- 
fred 36 

Lares  and  Penates,  Chinaman's, 
104 

Larry  74 

Laundries  130;  equipped  with 
gas  113;  why  bills  are  high 
141,  142,   144 

Lavoisier,  79 ;  awarded  prize  for 
essay  on  street  lighting  162; 
discovers  composition  of  air 
162,  invents  gas  holder  162 

Leamington  baths  165 

"  Leaner "  gas,  efficiency  of,  148 

Leavenworth,    Kansas   48 

Lebon,  Philippe,  gas  patents  and 
lights  Paris  house  29,  117, 
163;  patent  for  "  Thermo- 
lamp  "  163  ;  first  patent  for  gas 
power  163 

Leggett,   Samuel  44 

Lenoir,  invents  coal  gas  engine 
124,  169 

Liberty  motor  124 

Liberty,  Statue  of  92 

Libraries  of  early  alchemists  de- 
stroyed 9,  10 

Library  of  gas  books  178 

"Light  —  Let  there  be"  1;  new 
light  made  in  a  teakettle  42; 
how  produced  by  gas  112 

Lighter,  "  touch-a-button  "  gas 
172 

Lighthouse,  gas  lighted  43 

Lighting  —  first  artificial  35; 
159;  first  central  lighting  plant 
30;  first  outdoor  distance  168, 
170;  village  lighted  with  gas 
lamps  on  tower  (beacon  light- 
ing)  42  ^  ^ 

Lighting  gas  with  platinum  172 


Lime-light  53  ;  invented  163  ;  gas 
heated  166 

Lime  purifier  164;  wet  164 

Lincoln's  birthday,  two  Chicago 
gas  companies  incorporated 
on,  92 

Linkboy  of  early  London  34,  37, 
41 

Locomotive  (first)  made  by  first 
gas  engineer  23 ;  description 
of  first  trial  27-28 

London  and  Westminster  Gas 
Light  &  Coke  Co.  first  gas 
company  incorporated  32,  164; 
charter  granted  164 

London  —  early  lighting,  night 
scenes,  36;  pitchy  ropes,  flam- 
beaux and  oily  torches  37; 
lighting  160 

London  —  gas  lighting  —  Ly- 
ceum Theatre  163;  first  street 
(Pall  Mall)  to  be  gas  lighted 
32,  164;  early  gas  lighting, 
37,  41 ;  Westminster  Bridge 
gas  lighted  37,  38,  165;  St. 
Margaret's  Parish  38,  165; 
early  gas  plants  39;  principal 
gas  companies  40 ;  street  light- 
ing 168 

London  Monthly  46 

London  Portable  Gas  Company 
64 

London  smoke  nuisance  138,  139, 
140 

Louisville,  Ky.  47 

Louvain  University,  Minckelers 
demonstrates  burning  of  gas 
at,  29 

Louvre  160 

Lowe,  Leon  P.,  73 

Lowe,  Thaddeus  S.  C,  patent 
for  carbureted  water  gas  proc- 
ess 67 ;  for  ice  machine  68 ; 
Mount  Lowe  Observatory  68 

Lungren   awarded   Franklin   In- 


Ind 


ex 


197 


stitute   medal    for   gas,  mantle 
53 
Lyceum  Theatre  (London)  Win- 
sor  gives  public  demonstration 
of  gas  lighting  32 

Mackintosh,  James,  127,  166 

Maecenas  109 

Magi  of  Persia  16 

Magicians  6,   16 

Main  Street,  first  street  in  the 
U.  S.  to  be  lighted  by  gas  42 

Mains  —  \voodcn  —  (England) 
49,  81;  (Chicago)  50,  Rhode 
Island  81;  of  glass  and  con- 
crete 81;  patent  for  manufac- 
turing 166;  turned  and  bored 
cast  iron  170;  first  to  be  laid 
in  a  public  street  32;  location 
in  London  40 ;  separate  mains 
for  heating  and  lighting  pro- 
posed 169;  cost  of  1-36"  and 
78-6,"  each  delivering  same 
volume  of  gas  89;  miles  in  U. 
S.    86 

Malam,  John,  33,  165,  166 

Manhattan,  N.  Y.,  48 

Manhattan  Gas  Light  Co.  166 

Man's  early  struggle  against 
wild  beasts  for  supremacy  60 

Mantle  (gas),  inventor  and 
composition  of,  53-55;  open 
flame  vs.  54,  55;  first  plati- 
num basket  171 ;  incandescent 
171 ;  inverted  171 ;  for  street 
lighting  171 

Maple  sugar,  miracle  maker  of, 
60 

Mariotte  1^1 

Martineau  166 

Mary  gold   5 

Mastodon  and  gas  lights  44 

Matthews'  description  of  public 
display  of  gas  lighting  at  So- 
ho  24 


McDougal,   Samuel  T.,   169 

McLusky,  John  W.,   141 

McMurtie,  James,  43,  165 

Meat  cooking,  Chinese  discovery 
of,  103,  104 

Mellon  Institute,  Pittsburgh  140 

Melville,  David  43,  164;  patent 
for  coal  gas  making  165 

Metals  —  transmutation  of,  6-12; 
uses  of  gas  for  melting  131; 
meter  (gas)  first  33,  165;  de- 
scription 83;  wet  33,  165; 
first  dry  166;  inferential  167; 
introduced  by  'London  gas 
company  and  opposition  to  82, 
83;  legalized  in  France  83, 
168;  made  in  U.S.  167;  made 
in  N.  Y.  92;  made  in  Boston 
168;  number  in  use,  Great  Bri- 
tain 84;  U.  S.  85 

Midas,  King,  5 

Midsummer  Eve,  celebration  of, 
36 

Milton  (quotation)  6 

Milwaukee,  Wis.  48 

Minckelers,  Jean  Pierre,  29,   162 

Minos  (King)  and  labyrinth  of 
Minotaur  108 

Miracle    workers    60 

Mitchell  on  high  quality  gas  56 

Monday  made  a  shopping  day 
for  woman  by  the  gas  fairy 
113,    114,    115 

Montgomery,  Ala.  48 

Montpelier,  Vt.  48 

Montreal,    Can.   85 

Moses  108 

Mother  a  slave  to  oil  lamps  98 

Murdock,  Alexander,  27-28 

Murdock,  William  —  "father  of 
the  gas  industry"  22,  23,  24, 
25,  26,  27,  28,  65;  birthplace 
24;  entered  employ  of  Boulton 
&  Watt  26 ;  invents  "  gas 
tips  "  25,  26 ;  used  bladder  gas 


198 


Index 


lantern  28;  travelled  in  car- 
riage run  by  steam  and  lighted 
by  gas  28 ;  gas  lighted  own 
houses  23,  162;  Boulton  & 
Watt's  Shops  23;  163;  cele- 
brates Peace  of  Amiens  with 
public  exhibition  of  gas  light- 
ing at  Soho  23,  24,  163 ;  builds 
gas  works  for  lighting  shops 
and  cotton  mill  24,  163;  read 
paper  on  gas  lighting  before 
Royal  Society  of  London  and 
received  Count  Rumford  Gold 
Medal  for  achievements  in  gas 
lighting  24,  164;  cooked  chops 
and  steak  over  gas  jets  106 ;  in- 
vented first  oscillating  steam 
engine  162;  improved  steam 
engine  25 ;  invented  "  D  "- 
slide  valve  163;  invented  first 
steam  locomotive  (40  years  be- 
fore Stephenson)  27,  162; 
description  of  first  trial  27-28 ; 
invented  steam  gun,  anticipat- 
ing Perkin's  apparatus  163; 
invented  atmospheric  railway 
and  apparatus  for  heating  wa- 
ter for  baths  165;  died  28 

Muriatic  acid  discovered  160 

Musgrave,  H.  B.,   169 

"Mystery  box"   83 

Naphtha  springs  of  Persia  18 

Napoleon  68;"une  grand  folic" 
30 

Nashville,  Tenn.  48 

National  Board  of  Fire  Under- 
writers 148 

National  Light  &  Heat  Com- 
pany 134;  organized  32; 
meeting  of  stockholders  164; 
charter  164 

Natural  gas,  first  notice  of  in 
Bible  18;  discovery  in  Greece 
16;  ignited  by  lightning  15; 
first  use  in  U.  8.,  and  where 


found,  18,  20,  160,  161;  piped 
from  Texas  to  Pennsylvania 
and  from  Oklahoma  to  Indi- 
ana 63 ;  production  in  1,000 
cubic   feet   88 

Natural  gas  industry,  beginning 
of  in  U.  S.  87,  88 

Nephtar,  bitumen  of  Judea  18 

Newark,   N.  J.  48 

Newcastle,  England  159 

Newcomen's  steam  engines  26 

New  Haven,  Conn.  48 

New  Haven  Railroad  used  gas 
light  on  night  express  46 

New  Orleans,  La.  47,  167 

Newport,    R.    I.    43 

New  York  City  47,^  48;  first 
house  to  be  gas  lighted  44; 
early  gas  companies  91,  92; 
first  street  lighting  ordinance 
161 ;  first  use  of  oil  lamps  for 
street  lighting  162 

Ne'w  York  Evening  Post  45 

New  York  Gas  Light  Co.  166 

New  York  State  early  gas  com- 
panies 48 

Nitric  acid  discovered  160 

Nitro-glycerine  discovered  168 

Nobel  Peace  Prize  170 

Nobel,  Sir  Alfred  170 

"  Nomenclators,  "  Roman  103 

Observatory,  Mount  Lowe  68 

Oil,  American,  19 

Oil  City  and  first  oil  well  drilled 
19 

Oil  gas  In  England  64,  72;  in- 
ventor and  process  72-73 ;  pro- 
cess patented  166;  works  au- 
thorized by  Parliament  166; 
process  in  California  72,  73, 
171 

Oil  lamps  first  use  35,  159;  Paris 
161;  New  York  162 

Oil  springs  of  New  York  state 
19 


Index 


199 


Oil  well  first  drilled   19,  169 

Old  Comnock,  Gas  lighting  in 
23 

Old  Dominion  Gas  Cooking 
Stove   169 

Oracle  of  Delphi,  origin,  17 

Orato,  Sergius,  115,  159 

Ordinance,  first  American  city 
gas,  44 

Ottawa  (Canada)  85;  (Illinois) 
48 

Owen,  Edward,  169 

Oxygen  discovered  160;  centen- 
nial of  discovery  170;  in 
earth's  atmosphere  57;  and  gas 
lighting  57 

Palmer,  A.  Mitchell,  (quotation) 
154 

Pall  Mall,  first  street  to  be  gas 
lighted  32;  Rowlandson's 
"Peep  at  the  Gas  Lights"  38; 
sketch  showing  40 ;  first  gas 
mains  laid  in  a  public  street 
164 

Paracelsus  160 

Paris,  Lebon's  house  gas  light- 
ed 29;  first  street  gas  lighting 
41;  Stevenson's  comparison  of 
gas  and  electric  lighting  56; 
early  street  lighting,  first  con- 
cession (torch  bearers)  161; 
linkboys  use  hour  glass  41 ; 
candles  set  in  glass  boxes  161 ; 
oil  lamp,  161;  reflector  oil 
lamps  introduced  162 

Parliament  lighted  by  com- 
pressed gas  46 

Pasteurizing    128 

Patents,  first  for  making  gas, 
French  29;  English  31;  Amer- 
ican 165 

Patroclus  103 

Pawtucket,  R.  I.  43 

Peale,  Charles  Wilson,  44 


Peale,  Rembrandt,  44,  165 

Peak's  Museum,  gas  lighting  ex- 
hibition, 44,  165 

Peckston's  Theory  and  Practice 
of  gas  lighting  82 

Pekin,  early  lighting  by  natural 
gas,  18 

Pemberton,  Josiah,   127 

Penelope   115 

People's  Gas  Light  and  Coke 
Co.,  The  (Chicago)  92,  142; 
library  180 

Peoria,   111.  48 

Perfume  and  poison  gas  152 

Perkin,  William  Henry,  169 

Persons  employed  in  petroleum 
and  natural  gas  industries  in 
United    States   88 

Peter  the  Hermit,  birthplace,  24 

Petroleum,  used  as  a  medicine 
19;  in  England  20;  industry 
in  the  U.  S.  87-88;  estimated 
resources  145 

Philadelphia  Gas  Companv  43 

Philadelphia,  Pa.,  47;  "Public 
Remonstrance "  against  gas 
lighting  43,  164;  streets  light- 
ed with  Clifton's  tin  lantern 
equipped  with  four  glass  panes 
(Franklin's  idea)   161 

Phillips  and  Lee,  Manchester  24 

Philosopher's  Stone,  Roman  rule 
endangered,  9;  properties  of, 
10 

Phoenixville,  Pa.  71 

Photography  152 

Piccadilly,  sketch  showing,  40 

Pie,  steps  necessary  in  making 
apple,    100 

Pig,  A  Dissertation  on  Roast,  103 

Pine  knot  the  first  lighting  35 

Pintsch  gas,  76,  170 

Pitch,   Jew's,    18 

Pittsburgh,  yearly  damage  due 
to  smoke  142 


200 


Index 


Platinum  sponge  for  4ighting  gas 
172 

Plowing  by  dynamite,  124 

Polignac,   Cardinal,    161 

Pompeii   117 

Ponce  de  Leons,  early,  10 

Population  served  by  gas  com- 
panies—  Great  Britain  84; 
United  States  85,  86 

Portable  gas  46 ;  Murdock's  de- 
scription 64,  65,  166 

Portland,  Me.  and  Ore.  48 

Poughkcepsie,   N.  Y.  48 

Price  charged  for  public  service 
93,   94 

Prices  for  gas,  in  London  39;  in 
Chicago  49;  in  U.  S.  47;  con- 
tract system  82,  83  ;  compared 
with  that  of  other  commodi- 
ties 120,  121 

Priestley,  Joseph,  162;  invents 
water  lute  162;  grave  of  170 

Producer  gas  76 

Prosperity  of  utilities  and  com- 
munities inseparable  94 

Providence,  R.  I.  48 ;  opened 
first  gas  appliance  store  107, 
170 

Ptolemy  and  Columbus  9 

Publicity  establishes  confidence 
between  utilities  and  commun- 
ities 95 

Public  ownership  of  utilities  in 
the  United  States  94,  95 

Public  Service  Company  of 
Northern  Illinois  90 

Public  service  (or  utilities)  com- 
missions 94,  183 

Public  service  (or  utilities)  cor- 
porations, definition,  source  of 
rights,  why  regulated  93,  94, 
96 

Punch,  (quotation)  135 

Purifier,  (wet  lime)  introduced 
33 

Purifying  apparatus  76,  77 


Pusher  ram  75 

Quebec,   Canada  85 
Quincy,    111.    48 

Radiant  energy  of  sun  59-62 

Radiant  gas  heater   120 

Radiator,  origin  of,  163;  gas- 
fired  steam   120 

Radium  123,  156;  in  pitch- 
blende 171 ;  isolated  from 
chloride  172 

Railroad  carriages  gas  lighted 
169 

Rameses  III.  102 

Range,  first  gas  cooker  106; 
first  approach  to  modern  gaf 
range  169;  for  hotels  and  res- 
taurants 106,  107;  advertise- 
ment in  first  issue  of  Ameri- 
can Gas  Light  Journal  107, 
168;  first  approach  to  modern 
gas  range  170;  imported  from 
England  and   France   170 

Redruth,  (Cornwall)  first  house 
lighted   by  gas,   23 

Reflector  gas  heater  120 

Refrigeration  by  gas-fire  (ab- 
sorption process)  126,  172; 
machine  169 

Regulation  of  public  utilities  94, 
95 

Retort,  first  patent  for  rotary,  33 

Revnolds,  Governor  John,  50 

Richards,  William,  165,  168; 
treatise  on  gas  manufacture  83 

Richmond,  Va.  42 

Rideal  on  hygiene  of  gas  light- 
ing 57 

Robb,  James,  167 

Robin  Goodfellow  7 

Rochester,  N.  Y.  48 

Rockefeller,  John  D.,   19 

Rock  Island,  111.  48 

Rock  oil  19 

Roofing  131,  151 


Index 


201 


Rosin  gas  prices  47 
Rowlandson,  Thomas,   38 
i^oyal  Baking  Powder  Co.  170 
Royal    Philosophical    Society    of 

London   21,   40 
Rubber,    128;    how   named    162; 

waterproofing  by  166 
Rumford,  Benjamin,  163 
Russell,  James,  166 
Russell.  Lord  John,  110,  167 
Ruud,  Edwin,  113,  171 

Sacrifices,  natural  gas  used  in,  18 

Safeguarding  America  against 
fire   150 

Sahara  Desert's  solar  energy  61 

Salamanders   7 

San  Francisco,  Calif.  48 

Saturators   75 

Savannah,   Ga.  48 

Scheele,    Charles,    162 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  on  "Lighting 
London  with   Smoke"    30 

Scrubbers  78 

"  Secret,  The  Great,  "  10 

Semper  fidelis  155-6 

Seneca  115;  Seneca  Oil  19 

Serle,  Henry,   161 

Sewing  Machine  driven  by  Ty- 
son engine  125 

Sharp,  James,   106,  168 

Sharp,  John,   105,  106 

Shavings    77 

Shaw's  gas  cooking  stoves  169 

Shea,   Sir  Martin    (quotation)    8 

Shirley,  Thomas  21,  22,  160 

Simpson    184 

Singeing  apparatus  127 

Smoke  abatement  committees  — 
Chicago  136,  137;  American 
cities  136-138;  London  139; 
Pittsburgh  140 ;  Glasgow  141 ; 
smoke  nuisance  in  London  138, 
139,    140 

Smoke,  wondrous  illumination 
by   30;    cause   of   143;    injury 


due  to  visible  and  invisible 
gases  136,  137;  yearly  damage 
in  Chicago  136,  142;  effect  on 
buildings  143,  on  singers  140; 
an    index    of    inefficiency    143 

Sobrero  168 

Soho  23,  24 

Soot,  and  health  140,  141,  142, 
143,  144;  in  air,  amount  of, 
London  140,  141;  Pittsburgh 
140;  Glasgow  141 

Soul  of  coal    14,   80 

South  Shields  Gas  Company  128 

Sover,  French  master  chef  105, 
106,   168 

Spain,  gas  plant  for  Queen  Mo- 
ther  of,    168 

Spices  and  gum  in  room  heating 
115 

"Spirit,  wild,"  12,  22 

Spirits  in  river  and  lake  waters 
7 

Springfield,  111.  48 

Stack  valve  69 

Star  in  the  East  16 

Statistics  on  growth  of  gas  in- 
dustry, Great  Britain  84;  Can- 
ada and  South  America  85; 
United  States  85,  86,  87,  88 

Statistics  of  petroleum  and  nat- 
ural gas  industries  in  United 
States  88 

Steam  boilers  with  automatic 
control,   gas-fired   126 

Steam  generated  by  gas  170;  in 
gas-fired  boilers  130 

Steam  heat  used  by  Watt  162; 
first  building  in  the  United 
States  heated  by  steam  168 

Steam  locomotive,  inventor  23 ; 
description  27,  28 

Steam  used  in  making  gas  69-71 

Steamboats  lighted  by  gas  47 

Steel,  "cemented"  127;  draw- 
ing and  tempering  131 

Stephenson,  George,  28 


202 


Index 


Stevenson,  Robert  I.ouis,   56 

Stewart,  Philo  Penfiekl,  167 

Stoker,  first  mechanical,  139,  165 

Stone   of   Wisdom    10 

Stove,  first  base-burning,  160;  in 
U.  S.  166;  "porous"  burner 
gas  169;  gas  169;  solid  flame 
gas    170 

Strabo   117 

St.  Louis,  Mo.  47 

St.   Paul,   Minn.  48 

Strand,  sketch  showing,  40 

Street  lighting,  first,  35;  London 
35,  36,  37,  38,  39,40,41;  Paris 
41 

Sulphuric  acid  discovered  160 

Sultan's  palace  and  mosques  gas 
lighted   168 

"Sun  Dial"  range  170 

Sun,  how  its  radiant  energy 
is  stored  60,  61,  62;  source  of 
all  energy  63  ;  an  acre  at  earth's 
surface  60,  61 ;  temperature 
and  total  energy  61 ;  explana- 
tion 122,  123  ;  explosions  123  ; 
rays  bake  bread  and  cook 
meats   161 

Sunshine  stored  for  tlie  use  of 
man  59,  60 

Superheater  69 

Superstitions,  early,  7 

Syracuse,  N.  Y.  48 

Tailoring  130 

Tallow  candle  a  gas  factory  62, 
63 

Tar,  extractors  75 ;  how  removed 
from  gas  77,  78 ;  derivatives 
152;  produced  by  distillation 
of  coal  161;  patent  for  mak- 
ing   pitch    161 

"  Taste  is  long  remembered  after 
the  price  of  a  dinner  has  been 
forgotten"    102 

Taylor  166 

Temperature  during  cooking  pe- 


riod 74;  automatic  and  abso- 
lute control  132 

Theophrastus   159 

Thermas   109 

"Thermolamp"  117,  118,  163 

Thermostatic  controlled  gas  wa- 
ter heater  113,   171 

Thompson,  Adam,  110,   167 

Thorium  54 

Tidal   power  147 

TItusville,    Pa.    169 

TNT  123 

Toby,   H.   A.   171 

Tom  Tumbler  7 

Toronto,  Canada  85 

"  Touch  a  button "  gas  lighter 
172 

Transmutation  of  metals  6,  7,  8, 
9,   10,   11,   12 

Troy,  N.  Y.  48 

Tudor  of  Boston    171 

Turbine,  125,  147 

Tyson  gas-fired  steam  engine  125 

Ulysses  103 

Union  hours,  alchemists  disre- 
gard,  8 

"  Up  and  down "  runs  first  171 

Users  of  gas,  Great  Britain  84; 
United    States    85,    86 

Uses  for  gas,  first  for  lighting 
34;  in  the  U.  S.  87,  128;  heat- 
ing greatest  role  128 

"  Utility  Business,  Why  I  am  in 
the,"  91 

Valentine,  Brazil  160 
Van    Steenburgh    72 
"  Vegetable  Statiks  "   161 
Verne,   Jules,    55 
Vicksburg,  Miss.  48 
Virginihus  Puerisqiie  56 
Volcanoes  harnessed  147 
Vulcanizing  130 

Washing,  drying  and  ironing 
cost   114 


Index 


203 


Washing  machine,  electric-driv- 
en  and  gas-heated    113 

Washington,  D.  C.  48 

Washington  impressed  by  burn- 
ing gas  20 

Watchmen's  cries,  London,  35, 
36 

Water  heaters,  gas,  develop- 
ment and  thermostatic  control 
112,  113;  circulating  171; 
first  patent  for  instantaneous 
113;  automatic  171;  copper 
coil  171 ;  number  in  U.  S.  27 

Water  heating,  early  means  of. 
112;  patents  for  gas  166;  by 
gas  for  factories   126 

Water  lute    (seal)    invented   162 

Water  power  147 

Watt.  James,  23,  25,  26.  28;  pa- 
tent for  smoke  prevention  13^: 
heated  his  study  by  steam  162 

Wedding  rings   128 

Welsbach.  Carl  Auer  von,  52. 
53.  54.  171 

Welsbach   Company  57 

Welsbach  mantle  applied  to 
street  lighting  55 

Westminster  Bridge  fLondor.) 
opened,  first  gas  lighted  37, 
38.    165 

V^Hieeling.  W.  Va.  48 

"White  coal"   147 

White  House  instals  bathtub  111, 
168 

Wiean,  England  21 

Williamsburg.  N.  Y.  48 

Williamson  carbureted  ^  water 
gas  machine  69;  operation  70, 
71 

Wilmington,  Del.  and  N.  C.  48 


Winsor,  Frederick  Albert,  29,  30, 
31,  32,  33;  fails  to  learn  Le- 
bon's  gas  secret  30;  called 
"  madman  "  by  Scott  30 ;  his 
plan  to  light  London  by 
"  smoke "  through  central 
plant  a  "  big  humbug,"  says 
Napoleon  30;  burlesqued  by 
actors  and  his  reply  31;  ob- 
tained first  English  patent  for 
making  gas  31;  lectures  on 
and  public  demonstrations  of 
gas  lighting  32;  163;  organ- 
izes gas  company  32;  laid  first 
gas  mains  in  a  public  street 
and  lighted  it  by  gas  32 ;  in- 
corporates and  obtains  charter 
for  London  and  Westminster 
Gas  Light  &  Coke  Co.^  32,  33  ; 
first  gas  utility  promotion  134; 
English  patent  for  gas  making 
163;  advocates  gas  for  cook- 
ing and  heating  104,  118  and 
for  abolition  of  smoke  134, 
135;  petitions  Parliament  for 
permission  to  form  gas  com- 
panv   164 

"  Wise  Men,  Three,  "  16 

Witches   7 

Wooden  gas  mains  in  Chicago 
49 

Woodhouse.  James,  162 

Wood  tar  152 

Wordsworth    (quotation)    99 

Wright  Company,  J.,  170 

Yarn  and  lead  for  jointing  164 

Zepoelin.  early  American,  68 
Zoning  143 


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